The span of time between the earliest earthworks at Stonehenge and the final abandonment of the site is approximately equal to that between the abandonment of Britain by the Romans and the launch of the iPad. Time enough, therefore, not only for it to undergo major constructional changes but also for shifts in its use and in the understanding of its purpose.

Beginning in c. 2900 bc with a circular earthwork 300 feet in diameter, in c. 2550 bc it acquired concentric rings of bluestone pillars and soon after the huge sarsen stone structure, so familiar today, was erected. Modifications continued for another thousand years.

The technological achievements beggar belief. The bluestones, with an average weight of four tons, were dragged 150 miles from the west of Wales. The sarsens, weighing up to forty tons, travelled a comparatively modest twenty miles but were placed upright on a plan hundreds of feet in extent within a margin of error of less than 1%. The top of the lintel of thirty giant stones deviated from the horizontal by only six inches; one could go on.

So what was Stonehenge for? We shall never know with any certainty of course. Its layout is carefully aligned with major events in the solar calendar, but it was at times during its long history a place of burial. There is also the fascinating possibility that the bluestones may have been regarded as having healing powers.

Uniquely spectacular and fascinating (and controversial) it may be, but Stonehenge is not alone. It stands amidst one of the world’s greatest concentrations of Neolithic and Bronze Age constructions, burial mounds and earthwork enclosures of various shapes and sizes, a vast sacred area of exceptional potency. Study of this broader context is a distinguishing feature of this tour, which also ranges beyond the undulating chalk uplands of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire into Dorset and Hampshire. A remarkably comprehensive overview of prehistoric Britain is the result.

Walking is an integral part of this tour. It is not possible to dig deeply into the subject without straying far from roads and car parks. On the whole the terrain is fairly easy, steepness being confined to Iron Age hillforts, and while there are about five miles on one day, other days cover a lesser distance on foot.

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