Stonehenge - Truths and Legends Travel ‘The Treasures of Stonehenge’ tour starts and finishes at the Holiday Inn, Salisbury. Mid Summer Place, Solstice Park, Amesbury, Wiltshire, SP4 7SQ Tel: 0845 241 3535 E-mail: [email protected] Please note that transport to the hotel is not included in the price of the tour. Transport From London: Driving from the M25, the hotel is less than 59 miles. Leave the M25 at Junction 12, then join the M3 motorway (signposted Southampton). Leave the M3 at Junction 8, then merge onto the A303 (signposted The South West, Andover). Leave the A303 at Solstice Park Services (signposted Boscombe Down and Bulford). Drive into the Solstice Park Services, pass Co-Operative Food, enter the car park via the automatic entry barrier. From the west: Via the A303 passing Stonehenge on your right onto dual carriageway proceed to Countess Roundabout (This is the first roundabout after the Stonehenge monument). At roundabout take 2nd exit staying on A303 signposted Andover. After 1 mile take the slip road to Solstice Park, Amesbury East & Boscombe Down. The hotel can be seen on exiting A303 on the west bound side. Follow signs to Solstice Park and Services. From Andover Railway Station: Leave the station and turn left onto The Avenue. Turn right onto the Weyhill Road (B3402), continue on the B3402 and you will pass the Shell Garage on the right hand side. At roundabout take the 1st exit onto Weyhill Road - B3402. At the next roundabout take the 1st exit onto the A343 (signposted London, Basingstoke, Exeter). Continue forward onto the A343 (signposted Exeter). At roundabout take the 2nd exit, then merge onto the A303 (signposted Exeter, Amesbury). Continue on the A303 for 10 miles. Leave the A303 at the Solstice Park Services. The hotel will be on your right hand side. A taxi ride from Andover Station will take around 15 minutes, taxis are widely available outside the station and will cost up to £25. From Salisbury Railway Station: At the mini roundabout, take the 1st exit. At the next roundabout take the 3rd exit onto the A36 (signposted Ring Road, Southampton). At Castle Roundabout take the 1st exit onto the A345 (signposted Amesbury). Follow the yellow signs to Amesbury, Solstice Park. (approximately 7 miles). At Solstice Park, follow signs to Solstice Park Services. The hotel is located beside the A303 next to Somerfield’s. A taxi ride will take around 15 minutes, taxis are widely available outside the station and will cost up to £25. Parking at the hotel is provided free of charge for Travel Editions clients. Accommodation Holiday Inn, Salisbury-Stonehenge Holiday Inn, Salisbury - Stonehenge is a comfortable four star hotel located in the heart of beautiful Wiltshire, easily accessible from the M3 motorway, London, the Midlands and the West Country. The hotel is the nearest hotel to Stonehenge so offers the perfect convergence of past and present in an unforgettable setting. A range of facilities are available during your stay. Bedrooms are equipped with all necessities to ensure a relaxing and enjoyable stay, including an en-suite bathroom with bath/shower, TV, telephone, Wi-Fi, air- conditioning, hairdryer and tea/coffee making facilities. Additional details can be found via the hotel website: http://hisalisbury-stonehenge.co.uk/ Check-in and departure from the hotel On the day of arrival you will be able to check-in at the hotel from 15.00, and the tour manager will meet you in the evening at the welcome reception. On the last day of the tour, the tour will not finish until approximately 17.00 – 17.30 so you should check with your tour manager, or the hotel reception, where luggage should be stored until your departure. Extra nights If you have booked to stay an extra night at the hotel, this is on a bed and breakfast basis and check out from the hotel is at 12:00. Special requests If you haven’t already done so, please notify Travel Editions of any special requests as soon as possible to allow sufficient time to make the necessary arrangements. Dining On the first and second night dinner will be served at the hotel’s restaurant. Breakfast on both days of your stay is included in the price but meals other than these stated are not included. Places Visited Woodhenge Located just north of Amesbury, Woodhenge is a Neolithic Class II henge and timber circle. Dating from 2300 BC, Woodhenge is thought to have marked a particular stage in the evolution of human religious belief and community organisation. Originally believed to be the remains of a large burial mound, you will be able to identify the concrete markers that stand there today - these replace the six concentric rings of timber posts which are believed to have once supported a ring-shaped building. There is evidence that it was in use around 1800 BC. It is possible that the banks and ditches were used for defensive purposes in addition to its ceremonial function. Woodhenge was identified in 1925 after an aerial archaeology survey and is of profound historical and social significance. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/woodhenge/ Durrington Walls Durrington Walls is the site of a large Neolithic settlement and later henge enclosure, also located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Between 2004 and 2006, excavations on the site by a team led by the University of Sheffield revealed seven houses and it has been suggested the settlement may have originally had up to 1000 houses if the entire settlement area was used. The period of settlement was probably short, between 15 to 45 years starting sometime between 2525 and 2470 BC. Durrington Walls has been described as the "largest Neolithic settlement in the whole of northern Europe” and at 500m in diameter, the henge is the largest in Britain. Recent evidence suggests that it was a complementary monument to Stonehenge. Stonehenge Visitor Centre The Stonehenge experience can now be enhanced by the new world-class visitor centre which houses museum-quality exhibitions, plus five Neolithic Houses and a spacious shop and café. Hundreds of prehistoric objects from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site are on display at the visitor centre including a skeleton from a long barrow burial mound, a range of axes and battle equipment, and crockery that would have been used in everyday Neolithic life. There is also the possibility of viewing reconstructions of Stonehenge. During your visit, you will also have a guided tour of the stone circle and earthworks, adding the insight of an expert to your knowledge. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/ Avebury’s Henge Monument Avebury’s Henge Monument is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles. Unique amongst megalithic monuments, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe, and is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary Pagans. Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum The Salisbury Museum and South Wiltshire Museum aims to ‘ engage and inspire local, national and global audiences by telling the story of a unique landscape which has been the cradle of continuous human achievement for over half a million years’. The Museum is located in the King’s House, a Grade I listed building, the history of which stretches back to the 13th Century. The main strength of the Museum rests in its archaeological collections: these include prehistoric material from South Wiltshire, including Stonehenge; the Pitt Rivers' Wessex collection; and a fine medieval collection including finds from Old Sarum, Clarendon Palace and the city itself. In addition, the museum has fascinating displays of costume and ceramics, and regular temporary exhibitions. A highlight will be viewing the famous Amesbury Archer, an early Bronze Age man whose grave was discovered during excavations at the site of a new housing development in Amesbury near Stonehenge. http://www.salisburymuseum.org.uk/ Wiltshire Museum at Devizes The Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Library and Gallery were founded in 1853, and you have the unique opportunity to view the museum in private during our exclusive visit. The Wiltshire Heritage Museum has an international reputation and attracts visitors from all over the world. The archaeology collections, which are among the finest in Britain, trace the history of people living in Wiltshire in a series of galleries - Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval. The collections on display include important finds associated with the World Heritage Sites of Avebury and Stonehenge. A new addition to the museum is a gallery that tells the story of Prehistoric Wiltshire and the people who lived there. Their renowned archaeology collection has been redisplayed to tell new stories and gold objects excavated from Bush Barrow near Stonehenge displayed permanently for the first time. http://www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk/ West Kennet Long Barrow West Kennet Long Barrow is one of the largest, most impressive and most accessible Neolithic chambered tombs in Britain. Built in around 3650 BC, it was used for a short time as a burial chamber, nearly 50 people being buried here before the chambers were blocked. It is also part of the Avebury World Heritage Site. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/west-kennet-long-barrow/ Alexander Keiller Museum The Alexander Keiller Museum is one of the most important prehistoric archaeological collections in Britain, housed in the Stables Gallery, and including many artefacts from the World Heritage Site monuments. Alexander Keiller was a Scottish archaeologist and businessman who worked on an extensive prehistoric site at Avebury. He founded the Morven Institute of Archaeological Research, which later became the Alexander Keiller Museum.