PipfordTHANK YOU, Ronald Hutton, for finally clearing up for me exactly what a fucking 'henge' was, before we applied it to Stonehenge (from "Pagan Britain", 2013)
When I was 16 we holidayed in Wiltshire and visited Stonehenge late one afternoon. When the chap came to tell us it was closing he said we could nip back in an hour or so and climb in if we fancied.
Fwiw, a "henge" nowadays is an archeological term describing a Neolithic earthwork, of two nested rings, the outer of raised earth and the inner a ditch. The name obviously comes from Stonehenge.
Under this description, Stonehenge is not a henge.
James@anandamide There was a henge found just up the road from me, in Northamptonshire. It caused a bit of local excitement and confusion, and then disappointment when a) it was clarified what a henge really is and b) we were told it's likely all been ploughed out, and therefore flattened.
Woodhenge is just up the road from Stonehenge, and in our family we know it as Concretehenge because of the markers that had been erected over post-holes that had been found there.
northeyes hypnosis@anandamide I visited Stonehenge when I was just out of University, with three good friends. There were no fences anywhere then. We arrived at 7am, not long after sunrise, and there was nobody at all there. Just us, plus ten thousand sheep. We left when the first tourist bus pulled in.
@northeyes tbh the whole site is a national embarrassment, it has a bloody road running right by. There are plans to sort it but responsibility for the monument and environs falls between about 4 different parties so things are even more glacial than usual.
One day I'll get there for a solstice.
Also Avebury is much better 🙃