Stonehenge and Bath

Sam:

We went on a one and a half hour car ride to Woodhenge (which is an ancient wooden circle) and when we got there we learned that it used to be made out of wood but they had to replace it with concrete.

After we looked at Woodhenge for a while we decided to go on a walk to see Stonehenge, which was an hour long walk from Woodhenge to look at it for free because normally it is almost £50 for a family. We downloaded the audio tour of Stonehenge on Dad’s phone so we could learn all about it as we walked.

Stonehenge is a huge circle of stones from about 5000 years ago. Some of the stones used to make Stonehenge were from Wales. To get them to Stonehenge they used wooden rollers to move them. They weigh many tons. Some people thought that Stonehenge was made by druids (priests that worship nature) but were wrong. Nobody knows who built Stonehenge, but we do know that it took 1000 years to build.

On the way back to the car, we decided to go a slightly different way that ended by walking along a street.

Charlotte:

When we came back from Stonehenge we went to a city called Bath, and it was beautiful. We also went to this place called Bath Abbey. It had lots of candles, graves as tiles and at the centre of the wall there was stained glass. It was awesome.

There was also this place called the Roman Baths. It wasn’t open then so we just took a picture by the door. Fun fact: that’s how they named the city. The baths were built thousands of years ago by the Romans and the ruins were found by archeologists. Roman people used to go here to get clean. They all had baths together.

After that we just walked along the streets. There are lots of little shops and restaurants. We went to one restaurant called the Salamander Pub. My brother had mac and cheese balls, and I had fish and chips. It was yummy.

After that I remembered that we saw gelato on the way, so I asked if we could have that for desert. Everyone agreed, so we started walking to the gelato place. We had really yummy gelato.

We got home really late and went to bed. Tomorrow morning we get to try the sweet Sally Lunn buns we bought in Bath.

Dad:

I’ll give a little more detail about how to see Stonehenge for free. We did a little internet research and found that it was going to cost about $100 CDN to go to Stonehenge visitors centre and the view is not that much better than viewing it from the nearby field. So, since we are looking for opportunities to minimize costs and we love a great hike, we decided to be adventurous and just do it!

The blogger The Portable Wife details how you can hike from Woodhenge to Stonehenge, however there was a bit of confusion for us at the beginning.

After visiting Woodhenge, exit out the gate and then to your left (west of the entrance) there is another gate leading into a field.

Take this gate and follow a diagonal path across the field (south west). If you want, you can visit the Cuckoo stone as well. In the corner of that field there is a gate.

Go through the gate and head west along a path through the woods.

There is a fork in the road and take a left.

Continue west on the path (there is a field to your left/south and the forest to the right/north). You will pass by some houses on your right and reach an intersection near Long Barrow. Turn left (south) and follow the path.

There is a gate on the right, go through the gate near Old Kings Barrow. The path makes a left and then you will see another gate on your right. Go through the gate.

You will be able to see Stonehenge from here. Walk across the field (watch your step!) and when you get to the information sign make a 45 degree left turn. For the final approach you are taking the same walk up to Stonehenge that people did thousands of years ago along “Stonehenge Avenue” and is aligned perfectly with the sunrise during Summer Solstice.