Taking the Kids to Stonehenge? A Teenager’s Perspective

History of Stonehenge

Nearly one million people visit Stonehenge every year.

I don’t really understand why so many people want to see a pile of old rocks when there are many more interesting things to see that don’t require a four hour drive round trip to visit, but obviously, a million people think it’s important enough to make the journey.

Nobody really knows when Stonehenge was built, but scientists guess it was somewhere between 3000 BC and 2000 BC. It took around thirty or so years to build because the stones weighed, at most, fifty tons each and were very hard to move. Scientist also believe that Stonehenge was a temple thousands of years ago and still is one today for a group called the Druids. The modern day Druids are currently upset with the government for roping off the stones, believing they should have free access to worship at them. Stonehenge was roped off in 1977 because tourists were damaging them by breaking off pieces of rock for souvenirs or touching the stones, which causes them to erode.

When Stonehenge was built about five thousand years ago, it consisted of sixty stones all standing up in a circle. Now, only three “trilithons,” two standing rocks with a third resting on top, still stand today. A pile of fallen stones sits in the middle of what used to be a circle of stones.

Visiting Stonehenge with Kids

Today, lots of tourist make the early trip to see this “stunning” piece of history. I was not too thrilled to have to wake up so early for our daytrip to Bath and Stonehenge, but knew I would appreciate it later.

We walked around the roped path with the stones maybe fifty feet away. It was a Thursday, yet hundreds of people had made the trip to the middle of nowhere to see the stones. It was hard to take a good picture because the rocks were so far away that you ended up only getting a picture of the person in it and no background at all. It didn’t help that every time you had a clear shot, a tourist would come up and block your view.

Walking the path was very boring. We were given audio guides to play as we made it to landmarks around the circle, but the voice teaching sounded like a ghost, so I ended up letting it play without listening as I walked around.

In the end, I thought Stonehenge was a site people make too much of a deal about, when there wasn’t much to do or see. You can get the same effect from looking at a picture of Stonehenge on Google, that you can get from making the long drive. In my opinion it is highly overrated.

Maybe you’re the kind of person who likes looking at rocks from a distance, but if you’re not, save your money because it sure is expensive to see this boring landmark. Instead, take your kids to HintHunt, the Tower of London, or Gladiator School in Rome. They were much more fun!

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