by Elizabeth Wade

One of the most famous historical sites in England is Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain.  There are monstrous stones in a circle, and the question of who built them goes largely unanswered.  Stones of the oldest inner ring weigh up to 4 tons and are supposed to have come from Wales, 240 miles away.  The outer stones weigh up to 80 tons, and are thought to have been quarried 20 miles away.

Site construction has been credited to many, but the most popular attribution has been to the Druids.  A better story has Merlin and King Arthur magically bringing the stones from Ireland.

Situated on a vast plain surrounded by hundreds of mounds, the site is impressive and all the more so the closer you approach.  Since 1978 the viewing public has been prevented from close contact with the stones.  Fortunately, I was allowed to walk through the site and feel the stones with my own personal guide from the Historic Trust.  Some have said the public was excluded because the markings on the stones are fading from vandalism, but the guide assured me that the problem was that the many visitors trampled the ground, which contained burial sites and artifacts.

The stones are huge, with a kind of limestone feel to them with mosses clinging to the tops.  The guide said this was due to their age.  There was one rather tall one that seemed to stand out above all the others called the bloodstone.  There is apparently a legend to go with that particular stone which the guide could not remember.  The bloodstone had a much rougher texture, and it seemed like it would have been the heaviest to move to that location.

The henge stone seemed similar to most of the others, however, there was a hole right through the stone big enough for a small animal.  She said that an animal could have lived there at one time, but was unsure what it could have been.