The List: Number 68 – Visit Stonehenge

By 18th March 2011Uncategorised

I enjoyed Stonehenge a lot more than I thought I would. It was cold, bitterly bitterly cold, but brilliant. As far as I can gather from the Audio Guide (which, btw, would be better without the cheesy sound effects + sound tracks, thanks) is that they don’t know how the stones were put together in that formation, or why (though they suspect it had something to do with burial rituals).

They do know that there were two types of stone used, one called Bluestone, which they suspect came from a quarry approximately 250km away. That’s kind of phenomenal considering that they think that Stonehenge was created approximately 2500 BC, and the stones weigh approximately 4 tonnes. 4 TONNES! They suspect they were floated (as much as 4 tonne rocks can float) down a river. The other type of stone is what I want to call the grey stones, but I don’t think that’s right (Sarsen stones??). These ones were collected much closer, maybe 40km away. Local, in comparison.

I thought it was absolutely phenomenal. Perhaps a lot of the appeal in finally getting here was that it was on The List. And it was on The List because its instantly recognizable and seemed so very far removed from home. Either way, I was quite enthusiastic about the whole trip out there. I was excited to cross something off The List, excited to be doing something I said I would, and absolutely stoked to see something as old and as a brilliant as Stonehenge.

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