Hadyn Ingram
London School of Commerce
UK
Saloomeh Tabari
Cardiff Metropolitan University
UK
Understanding of mystery of Stonehenge
Sun worship temple? Healing centre? Huge calendar? How did they carry the great stones so far
and build this amazing structure using only basic tools?
Stonehenge is full of mystery, legend and myth. The megalithic monument was built around 5,000
years ago and its purpose is still unclear. There is no certainty as to how or why the bluestones from
Wales and the large Sarsen stones were assembled into a stone circle. The theories range from
archaeological and archaeoastronomical to ‘new age’ viewpoints.
Since it was described in a mid-1990s British Government Report as a ‘national disgrace’ (Mason,
2003), Stonehenge has been at the centre of much controversy about how it should be preserved,
especially as it lies so close to a major trunk road. This issue is, to date, still unresolved yet the site
attracts nearly 900,000 visitors per year. What do these visitors make of this World Heritage site?
The Summer Solstice in late June attracts approximately 30,000 visitors, some of whom come at
sunrise and sunset for spiritual or ceremonial reasons, or perhaps just for curiosity. This paper
explores the perceptions of visitors to Stonehenge, not from their own perspective, but based on the
viewpoint of the ‘Blue Badge’ tourist guides who explain the facts and mysteries of the stones to
tourists. Interviews with these members of the Institute of Tourist Guiding will seek to explore what
exactly tourists are seeking in their visits to Stonehenge and their levels of satisfaction. Most tourism
research studies seek direct consumer feedback, but this paper considers satisfaction from the
much-neglected tangential viewpoint of the ‘Blue Badge’ guide.