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English Heritage launch new ‘Stonehenge Explorer’ private access tour.

30 07 2025

Step into the heart of Stonehenge on this once-in-a-lifetime, expert-led experience.

No other tour gets you closer.

In groups of no more than six people, you’ll stand in the heart of the Stone Circle, travel in style across the prehistoric landscape and get unparalleled insight into the world of Stonehenge.

You’ll start your tour at the Stonehenge visitor centre, where you will be met by your two expert guides who will accompany you throughout your visit.

They’ll share knowledge of the broader context in which Stonehenge was built and used as you travel by Land Rover to nearby Woodhenge, another important monument from the time of Stonehenge.

Back at the visitor centre, you’ll see objects unearthed from the Stonehenge landscape and step inside a reconstructed Neolithic house.

Next you’ll head to the famous stone circle itself. On a guided walk through the monument field you’ll see the earthworks, barrows and outlying stones, which are a significant, if often overlooked, feature of the ritual site.

Then it’s time to join our team (English Heritage) as they carry out daily conservation checks on the famous stones. You’ll have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to spend around 15 minutes alone in the stones, taking photos and learning from your guides what it takes to care for this precious monument.

You’ll enjoy locally sourced food and drink during the experience thanks to a hamper in the Land Rover. At the end of the tour, you will be presented with a Stonehenge tote bag containing a guidebook (available in eight languages) and a small gift to take away as a souvenir of your visit.

The Explorer Tour runs 2pm until 5pm:

October: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday

November to March: Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Please arrive at the Stonehenge car park by 1.45pm and make your way to the membership office at the visitor centre, where you’ll meet your guides for the afternoon.

The tour involves some walking over uneven ground, so it’s most suitable for people with a good level of mobility. Whatever your needs, we’ll always do our best to meet them, so get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Remember to dress for the weather. Stonehenge is in an exposed spot on Salisbury Plain, so we recommend layers and sensible footwear.

Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements or allergies.

The tour is in English. You’re welcome to bring an interpreter, but they will need their own ticket.

Price

The tour is £250 per adult aged 18 and over, and £150 for children aged 5-17. We do not recommend this tour for children under 12.

If you’d like to book all six places for your exclusive use, the price is £1500.

Prices are valid until 31 March 2026.
BOOK DIRECT WITH ENGLISH HERITAGE

Got any further questions? Check out our Explorer Tours frequently asked questions page.

FURTHER RELEVANT LINKS

Discover what the landscape around Stonehenge has looked like from before the monument itself was first built through to the present day. Interactive Maps of the Stonehenge Landscape
Take an interactive tour of Stonehenge with our 360 degree view from inside the monument. Select the hotspots to find out more. Stonehenge Virtual Tour: Inside the Stones
A World Heritage Site famous for its ancient ceremonial landscape of great archaeological interest. Stonehenge Landscape
Coach and Private Guided Tours of Stonehenge including the inner circle access experience with transport from London. Stonehenge Guided Rock Tours
Stonehenge guided tours with special access departing from London, Bath, Southampton, Oxford and Salisbury – The Stonehenge Guided Tour Company
Stonehenge guided landscape and private access inner circle tours departing from Salisbury. The Stonehenge Travel Company

The Stonehenge News Blog

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Tags: england, english heritage, europe, History, National Trust, Stonehenge, Stonehenge Explorer, Stonehenge Inner Circle access, travel, VIP Stonehenge Toutrs, woodhenge
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Stonehenge: Tunnel Vision.

12 04 2024

In December 2014 the then coalition UK Government announced to great fanfare that the decades long saga of the on-again-off-again A303 Stonehenge Tunnel project would be revived once more.

The sound of zombie horses attempting the crawl away from yet another flogging pervaded the World Heritage Site, as first Deputy Prime Minister Clegg then Prime Minister Cameron descended on Stonehenge accompanied by the usual press, TV and English Heritage top brass.

A previous version of the project, estimated at £400M, had been cancelled several years earlier by a Government of a different colour on the basis of the cost, so it was somewhat surprising to learn that its reanimated corpse was now expected to require an eye-watering £1.7B – £2.5B.

To be fair, according to the plan this time the tunnel will be fully bored rather than cut-and-cover and will be somewhat longer. Not long enough, mind you, to go the full distance from the eastern edge of the World Heritage Site all the way to the western edge.

Instead, it will put its portals in the ground well inside the area of Outstanding Universal Value, obliterating whatever might be in the way.

A brand new dual carriageway will run from the western portal across 1k of farmland, sunk into a trench around 9m deep and 50m wide, to a new junction with the A360 at Longbarrow Roundabout.

At the eastern portal, the new dual carriageway will emerge to soar over the current A303/A345 junction at Countess Roundabout on a 10m high flyover, bringing 60mph HGV traffic noise to the delighted locals.

Almost 10 years on from the announcement, here’s where we are.

After an Enquiry in Public (where the independent Examiners decided against the whole idea), a doleful procession of vacant-eyed Secretaries of State for Transport (some of whom lasted less than 2 months in the job), a determination by one of them to approve the scheme’s Development Consent Order despite UNESCO’s and many others’ misgivings, a Judicial Review into that decision which found the Sec. of State had acted “irrationally” in doing so, then a “re-determination” of the application by a subsequent incumbent which again gave approval, and a further legal challenge (recently lost by anti-tunnel campaigners), we are now awaiting an impending appeal against that ruling.

Over a quarter of a million people have signed petitions against the scheme, crowdfunding an expensive ongoing legal process to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

UNESCO have threatened that Stonehenge World Heritage Site may be placed on the World Heritage in Danger register (a precursor to delisting) if the scheme goes ahead in its present form.

In the event that the tunnel does get built – estimated costs are now above £3B, and look likely to rise even more over the 5 years the build is optimistically slated to take – one certain outcome is that the casual view of a 4,500 year old global icon of prehistory from the A303 will be lost forever.

From being something freely glimpsed in the magnificent early dawn light surrounded by mist as you crest King Barrow Ridge making your way westwards, or appearing unexpectedly nearby, glowing rose-golden in the rays of the setting Sun as you head past it eastwards, it will become an experience only available to those who are either willing and able to pay the ever-increasing entrance fee or are lucky enough to be capable of walking the couple of miles from the nearest available parking or bus stop.

Meanwhile Stonehenge looks on impassively, perhaps whispering to those who will listen that humanity’s obsession with getting to the next traffic bottleneck a whole 8 minutes faster really may not be worth the cultural, let alone the financial, cost in the long run.