How can you gain special access to the inner circles of Stonehenge? I know it's before opening and after closing time and that you need to reserve ahead of time.

Do you pay extra and who can you contact concerning this?

Thanks in advance!

two main ways - book w/ Astral tours out of London and pay a small fortune. or book directly w/ English Heritage

(one doesn't need to use the commercial tour companies but most people do simply because they think it is easier - or that a tour is the only way to get inside the barriers)

For inner circle opening details, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.878

Access to the morning sessions b from London is tricky (you really need to stay in the area overnight, pick up a hire car the previous night or get an organised tour), though getting back to London by public transport's easier.

We did the tour with the Stonehenge Tour Company (Astral Tours). There is an extra fee, but it wasn't that much than the regular tour we did previously.

I REALLY recommend it! We have photos on our website (neesie.org), just the first couple of pages - you don't have to go further into the photos. If I was going to do another Stonehenge tour (and that isn't planned anytime soon), I'd do the inner circle only. I now feel like I'm done with Stonehenge for the time being - I've touched it, sat on it, took pictures next to the big stones, and that is enough for me now. We went on the sunset one, which I really enjoyed.

We obtained our Stone Circle Access tickets directly. Since we had an early morning admission (only thing available for our dates) we went the night before and also saw Salisbury Cathedral (arranged the Tower Tour in advance.) Here's what I wrote in my trip report about our Stonehenge Stone Circle Access visit:

<i> We arranged for the stone circle access with English Heritage, the folks who are in charge of Stonehenge. With this access there are several time slots per day that a limited number of people are admitted to go inside all the fences and ropes and walk in among the stones for one hour periods. These are before and after the normal opening hours for the site. www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehenge

A 15 minute cab ride from Salisbury brought us to our 7:30am admission. From the road, Stonehenge looks very small. Even from the normal visitor vantage path it is hard to sense the scale of the stones. When you get into the circle, it is as if the stones grow.

It was surprisingly easy to get pictures of the stones without people in them. Not so easy to drown out the voice of the one tour guide that had a group with him. We were relieved when after 40 minutes he announced, “Bath calls,” and they moved on. By the end of the hour, we had Stonehenge to ourselves.

I had heard lots of mixed reports about Stonehenge, but I am glad that I got to see it, and that I saw it this way. I know that I would have been disappointed with what I saw had I walked around the regular visitor path with crowds of other people.

We rented rooms from Sarum College, which is a sort of ecumenical retreat house (also does regular b&amp;b), located right inside the cathedral close. The close is quite large and walled, and the cathedral sits on a large swath of green grass, surrounded by old buildings on every side. Our sitting room looked over a lovely garden and the town, and the bedroom window gave a wonderful view of the cathedral. In the evening the cathedral spire, the highest in England, is illuminated. The gates to the close are locked at night; we were given a key to get out since we were leaving early in the morning for Stonehenge. Everyone at Sarum College was very nice, and we got to watch a cool video in the library about a guy who scaled the outside of the cathedral.</i>

Here are our pictures from Salisbury/Stonehenge:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...d=8DZsmzZuzamA

I also wrote in and applied for the access through English Heritage. No big deal, we got our tickets, we had an evening appointment. The only folks there with us were a wiccan group performing a ceremony, and the guard. It was very cool!!!

You guys are extremely helpful. I was definitely leaning towards the evening access.

Thank you so much!!! Merci!

Also, if you want to do what I did, I'll recommend the guy we hired to drive us around.

We were staying in London, so we got a train to Salisbury and back. We hired Vic (www.vicstaxi.com) to take us around to West Kennet Longbarrow, Silbury Hill, Avesbury, Salisbury, Old Sarum, and then our evening Stonehenge appointment. He was great - a retired serviceman who lived in the area all his life. Talkative, knowledgeable and very fun.

It can be worth considering a commercial tour company if additional sites are included such as Avebury and West Kennett Longbarrow. The 'small fortune' isn't really an issue when you factor in everything you gain.

&quot;<i>t can be worth considering a commercial tour company if additional sites are included such as Avebury and West Kennett Longbarrow. The 'small fortune' isn't really an issue when you factor in everything you gain</i>&quot;

True - but if someone really wants to see Silbury Hill, W. Kennett, Avebury, Stonehenge, maybe Salisbury and/or a white horse, it can be done for a fraction of the cost w/ a 1-day car rental.

You can see most, if not all of them, by ordinary bus in one day - see
www.wdbus.co.uk/htm/ta/sdo-stonehenge.asp

Vic's cost us &pound;100 total for the two of us for all day - he was so helpful and knowledgeable, we considered it a bargain. That didn't include the Stonehenge tickets, those were paid to English Heritage separately.