There is no one locally or in the south-west who is not fed up with the current situation at Stonehenge. Proposals announced on Monday to build a dual-carriageway tunnel at Stonehenge would end the bottleneck on the A303, which regularly creates long traffic queues. I can only comment on behalf of the Amesbury-Stonehenge Druid Grove Aes Dana; I know that others may have different views, we do not speak for all druids.
From our perspective, the traffic delay and rerouting of pilgrims via the new Stonehenge visitor centre which opened last December, make the stones less accessible. The closure of the A344, which once afforded great close-up views of Stonehenge to passers by, has made it less visible.
The distant roar of traffic and headlights from the A303 are still an intrusion upon the peace and sanctity of Stonehenge but they don’t really affect our worship there. We can be quite noisy ourselves. If a tunnel were built and the old A303 grassed over then Stonehenge would become a little more connected with its sacred landscape and more peaceful. In principle, the tunnel would be a big step forward.
However, we are apprehensive about how these plans might be executed. The impact of tunnels on the energy of place surrounding Stonehenge, which many consider to be a hub for natural lines of energy, needs to be explored.
Would the tunnels be trench-dug and back-filled to save money, or truly tunnelled, which would have less impact? Damage to the ancient burial places of our ancestors is of huge concern to us. It is not acceptable to simply make an archaeological record of things in the course of their destruction; we wish the remaining traces of our ancestors in the landscape to be left in peace for future generations to connect with. Recent removal of ancestral remains from the Stonehenge landscape without reburial and their subsequent public display has greatly increased our sensitivity and distress on this issue. We simply don’t trust the authorities to protect this legacy or take our feelings and beliefs into account.
We would like easy pedestrian access to Stonehenge directly from Amesbury to be restored as part of any changes. We would also oppose utterly any destruction of the Mesolithic spring site beside the existing A303 near Amesbury. It is the birthplace of Stonehenge culture, with 10,000-year-old evidence of Britain’s first settled community and sacred places. We would also be against any obstruction of solar or lunar sight lines from Stonehenge to surrounding monuments.
Worries and concerns aside, if all parties are consulted and we apply ourselves without bias to solving the issues then it could be possible to tunnel without doing harm and to bring benefits for everyone.
If we proceed, then we must tread sensitively and keep in mind the concerns and aspirations of all. Money should not shape the outcome; this sacred and ancient landscape is irreplaceable and unique for so many reasons, we cannot afford to get this wrong. We shall observe the plans as they evolve and hope to participate in any consultation, representing our ancestors, the sacred land, and its spiritual use and access for future generations.
