Many London guide books say negative things about visiting Stonehenge such as “it’s smaller than you think”, “you can’t get close to the stones”, “too many tourists”.

All that is rubbish. The stones are only small when you compare them to our society’s monolithic skyscrapers. But it’s nonsense to compare Stonehenge to modern structures. It’s truly amazing to comtemplate how Stonehenge was constructed before the wheel was invented.

Yes, the main circle is roped off. There are a couple stones off to the side that you can touch and get all zen with. So all is not lost in terms of sensorical experiences.

The good folks at English Heritage made sure to make the path wind around Stonehenge in such a fashion that you can experience it in different ways. At some parts of the path you are within about 12 feet. At other parts of the path you are within about 70 feet. This way you can examine Stonehenge close up and from a distance. Very clever.

I like the idea that Stonehenge is roped off. It makes for better photographs. I prefer my photos not to have silly tourists. Roping off Stonehenge ensured that my photos were purely of the great stones.
http://www.unlikelymoose.com/art/photograph/london/stonehenge/7115.html

I don’t think there were too many tourists. We were there at about 3:00 p.m. with a tourist bus. The parking lot had maybe 5 big tourist buses. However, the path was never crowded. The gift shop was another story. Too small and too crowded. (I was there in April 2005 and i think they had plans on moving the gift shop). But I didn’t go to see the gift shop so that’s ok.

But to answer your question; I’d say you get out of it what you want to get out of it. The only extra special energy force I felt was from visiting one of the world’s great landmarks. It wasn’t a spiritual energy, but rather a historical energy. I documented this experience by filming a video walking in a complete circle around stonehenge:
http://youtube.com/
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