The Stonehenge World Heritage Site

World Heritage Sites are designated by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee under the terms of the World Heritage Convention as places of Outstanding Universal Value to all humanity. By ratifying this treaty, the UK has undertaken to identify, protect, conserve, present and transmit such places to future generations.

Each member state decides how it will protect its Sites. The UK government uses existing laws and policies, but most decisions are taken by the local planning authority. A key element of protecting World Heritage Sites is the development of Management Plans.

Facts and Figures

Archaeology

Key ceremonial monuments include Stonehenge (c3000-1600 BC), the Avenue, the Cursus, Woodhenge, and Durrington Walls.

The landscape surrounding Stonehenge contains more than 350 prehistoric burial mounds, including 10 Neolithic long barrows and 348 Bronze Age round barrows. The key barrow cemeteries are Normanton Down, King Barrows, Cursus Barrows, Winterbourne Stoke, Wilsford Barrows and Lake Barrows.

Altogether there are 784 known archaeological features in the WHS, 416 of these are protected in 180 designated areas as scheduled monuments.

Size and ownership

Ownership and management of the WHS is shared between English Heritage, the National Trust, the Ministry of Defence, and farmers and householders in Amesbury, Larkhill and the Woodford Valley.

Stonehenge, Woodhenge and parts of Durrington Walls are owned by the government and managed by English Heritage (16ha).

Much of the landscape surrounding Stonehenge is owned by the National Trust (827ha, 31% of the WHS). 46ha of the WHS is now managed as an RSPB reserve.

Visitors to the Stone Circle

• Around 900,000 visitors in 2007/08.

• About 50% are from overseas, 30% are part of a group, 5% are education visitors.

• Summer Solstice: 30,000 people visited in 2008.

• Existing visitor facilities built in 1968 though subsequently extended.

• Access inside the Stone Circle stopped in 1978 because of vandalism and erosion due to increasing visitor numbers.

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Download: Click on the document you require

Public Consultation Booklet (38 pages - 2.1Mb)

WHS Management Plan (160 pages - 2.4Mb)

WHS Management Plan Summary (12 pages - 800Kb)

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