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Skip to main content Skip to navigation Close dialogue 1 / 3 Next image Previous image Toggle caption Print subscriptions Search jobs Sign in Eur Europe edition UK edition US edition Australia edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home The Guardian News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle Show more Hide expanded menu News View all News World news UK news Climate crisis Ukraine Environment Science Global development Football Tech Business Obituaries Opinion View all Opinion The Guardian view Columnists Cartoons Opinion videos Letters Sport View all Sport Football Cricket Rugby union Tennis Cycling F1 Golf US sports Culture View all Culture Books Music TV & radio Art & design Film Games Classical Stage Lifestyle View all Lifestyle Fashion Food Recipes Love & sex Health & fitness Home & garden Women Men Family Travel Money Search input google-search Search Support us Print subscriptions Search jobs Holidays Digital Archive Guardian Licensing Live events About Us The Guardian app Video Podcasts Pictures Newsletters Today's paper Inside the Guardian Guardian Weekly Crosswords Wordiply Corrections Tips Search input google-search Search Search jobs Holidays Digital Archive Guardian Licensing Live events About Us View image in fullscreen Steven Morris of the Guardian enjoys 20 minutes of quiet inside Stonehenge – a right granted to lucky ticketholders throughout August. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian Magic circle: Stonehenge offers lucky visitors 20 minutes alone in monument Steven Morris of the Guardian enjoys 20 minutes of quiet inside Stonehenge – a right granted to lucky ticketholders throughout August. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian Handful of ticketholders will be selected at random for up-close visits to ancient site throughout August By Steven Morris Wed 29 Jul 2026 06.00 CEST Last modified on Wed 29 Jul 2026 10.15 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google T rips to Stonehenge can be a little hectic. Tens of thousands of people turn up to celebrate summer and winter solstices and most other days the site is a place of bustle, excited conversation and selfie action. But throughout August, English Heritage is offering visitors the chance to win some guaranteed solitude within the hulking stones. Buyers of advance tickets will be automatically entered into a draw for 20 minutes of alone time at the heart of the monument. To mark the initiative, said to be the first of its kind since admission charges were introduced 125 years ago, the Guardian was granted 20 minutes in the circle on Tuesday morning to sample the solitude. Alone time in Stonehenge Usually, the monument is cordoned off with the sort of rope barrier used for VIP areas in nightclubs, with visitors viewing the stones from a surrounding path. For the Guardian’s visit, the supervisor Nick Morabito unhooked the rope shortly after 9am with a modest flourish. Rules remain – you must not touch the stones, lean on them or sit on them. But there is more opportunity to appreciate the heft of the monument and also the details – the swirly, blotchy patterns created by lichens, the deep fissures, the thistles poking their way out from under some stones. You can have a good look at carvings into the surface of the stones, including graffiti said to have been created by the architect Christopher Wren, whose family had a home nearby. View image in fullscreen The Guardian’s Steven Morris examines an inscription on one of the stones at Stonehenge, which first started charging for visits 125 years ago. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian It is quiet, but not silent. The A303 passes a few metres away but the traffic sound is a hum rather than a roar and does not drown out the song of the skylarks, the bleat of the sheep and the warm, southerly breeze passing through what Thomas Hardy called a “temple of the winds”. Most of all, you have a few quiet minutes to wonder who built the monument, why and, perhaps, what they would make of their successors 5,000 years on. The spell was broken at 9.35am when the first shuttle bus arrived from the visitor centre. A German family speed-walked to the circle to be the first there. They were not allowed beyond the crowd-control rope. Morabito said that while he loved helping make sure visitors enjoyed the stones, he cherished moments when he and fellow workers had a few minutes alone there: “At the end of a busy summer’s day it’s lovely to sit in the circle for a few minutes and remember what it’s all about.” Security officer Ray Bulpitt said he relished the tranquility of a night shift: “You hear the hares and sheep moving around.” View image in fullscreen Every day in August, English Heritage will let one person chosen at random into the circle by themselves. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian Occasionally an interloper tries to gain access. “We had a couple last night,” Bulpitt said. “We asked them to leave – no problems.” Georgia Butters, English Heritage’s head of operations for Stonehenge, agreed that spending a little time in the stone circle was special: “It is a spiritual place for many people but even if you’re not spiritual in that way there’s just something wonderful about the landscape – it has a presence, a stillness.” There are a few other ways to get solitary access to the stones and fame is one of them. Barack Obama visited while he was US president during a trip to the UK for a Nato summit and former astronaut Buzz Aldrin donned a Mars T-shirt when he popped by . At solstice time, people are allowed into the circle for nothing. But you will inevitably be sharing the space with many others and the sounds of skylarks will be drowned out by the banging of drums. The only way usually to get solitary time in the circle is to shell out the best part of £1,500 for an “explorer tour” . Butters said those who came out of the August draw were allowed to take along other members of their party who had booked at the same time. But they could opt to go completely alone. She said: “Everyone’s different, aren’t they? Some may want to run in and out of the stones, some may want to have a cup of tea there. “They’re massive stones and there’s something about standing right next to one and getting the scale of them. It makes you think, how did people get these things here 5,000 years ago?” Some will want to take pictures for social media. “That’s fine,” said Butters. “But I’d like to think that they’ll be able to just spend some time and have a moment of peace.” Explore more on these topics Stonehenge Wiltshire English Heritage History Archaeology news Share Reuse this content Most viewed Most viewed UK UK politics Education Media Society Law Scotland Wales Northern Ireland News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning Sign up for our email About us Help Complaints & corrections Contact us Tip us off SecureDrop Privacy policy Cookie policy Tax strategy Terms & conditions All topics All writers Newsletters Digital newspaper archive Bluesky Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Threads TikTok YouTube Advertise with us Search UK jobs Tips Accessibility settings Work with us Back to top © 2026 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (dcr)
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