The Stonehenge Cursus Cursus View all content for The Stonehenge Cursus

Well Cursuswalker, the machine dispensing leaflets seems to have been dispensed with full stop. Oh well. It'll save people having to enter the circus that is the Stonehenge car park on a summer afternoon. They want £3 off you if you're not paying to see the stones. I, like many other people, chose to park for nothing on the side of the byway that runs up to the Cursus. And after queuing for a lockless and fairly mangy toilet I headed up the track. It's not long before you get away from the mayhem. It's amazing how few people bother - and yet, you get a completely different view and understanding of the stones. It's heresy, but I kind of feel that Stonehenge is, has to be, a sacrificial site - I mean, sacrificed to tourists. EH can make huge profits out of it, and they can sink those profits into other heritage sites. This is surely good. All this aspirational stuff about a new visitor centre far away, and 'walking to the stones'... people on the whistle stop Stonehenge tour don't want to walk. If they did, and they had time, they would already be walking over the landscape, and they're not. I was virtually alone. Just keep walking and before you know it (wafted along by painted lady butterflies) you are there slap bang in the middle of the cursus. It's immense, disappearing off as far as you can see in both directions. Cows roam on one side, sheep on the other, and you can walk the length of it if you please. A board shows you the brawny prehistoric builders digging the ditches and building up the chalk sides - thus it was originally even more dazzly and impressive. So I urge you to make the (relatively minimal) effort and walk up here. Maybe it's for the slightly geeky - but that's you anyway isn't it.

Posted by Rhiannon 23rd July 2009ce

Comments (3)
You should post more field notes Rhiannon, lovely description and good PR for the walkers! Hurrah!	Posted by thesweetcheat 23rd July 2009ce
shucks. It was a great stroll though and so easy. I wish I got out more often!	Posted by Rhiannon 23rd July 2009ce
"So I urge you to make the (relatively minimal) effort and walk up here. Maybe it's for the slightly geeky - but that's you anyway isn't it." Nice post Rhiannon. This (Tuppence worth :-) may also be of interest - http://heritageaction.wordpress.com/	Posted by Littlestone 29th July 2009ce
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