Battle for Stonehenge - trial against car tunnel near the cult site begins

World cultural heritage - Battle for Stonehenge - trial against car tunnel near the cult site begins

Stonehenge, the ritual monument from the Stone Age, is known to everyone. What is less well known is that the enormous stone circle is located barely 200 meters from a busy main road, the A303. The traffic jams here and the sight of the road disturbs the impression of the cult site. The road is so close because it is historically based on ancient routes.

The British government has wanted to solve the problem for years by building a tunnel around 3.6 kilometers long. It would have a greater capacity than the road and would be "invisible" - in future, a footpath would run along the old route. That sounds tempting, but has met with resistance. This is because the tunnel construction would have a massive impact on the area surrounding the square.

Government does not give in

Back in July 2021, an initial attempt to build a tunnel was stopped by the Supreme Court due to concerns that the construction could have a negative impact on the UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the summer of 2023, the Ministry of Transport issued a new order - with minimal changes, according to opponents.

A lawsuit has now also been filed against the new order. The trial begins on December 12. The Stonehenge Alliance believes that the tunnel construction will cause great damage to the area around Stonehenge. "Given the government's indifference to the damage this road will do, we have no choice but to file this lawsuit," said John Adams, chairman of the Stonehenge Alliance. "As before, we hope to succeed in stopping this vandalism."

Well-known historians lead the fight

The legal challenge is being led by the Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site group, which was also behind the successful High Court challenge. Both groups include respected historians, archaeologists, activists and druids. Well-known historian and TV presenter Dan Snow said it was "astonishing" that the government was sticking with such a "damaging plan" despite facing "so much" opposition and urged the minister to "come up with something better".

Historian and best-selling author Tom Holland is President of the Stonehenge Alliance. He emphasized that the new legal challenge was necessary to "stop a development which, if allowed to go ahead, will permanently and irrevocably desecrate the landscape of Stonehenge". The whole thing was "an act of vandalism that shames Britain". The druid "King Arthur Pendragon" will also protest against the tunnel construction at the High Court in London. "This is the arrogance of the government. The relevant inspectors have said this is a bad idea, but the government has just ignored them and decided they'll do whatever the hell they like." Indeed, the Department for Transport has brushed aside the concerns of its own experts.

But as illustrious and colorful as the anti-tunnel alliance is, it remains a "David versus Goliath" battle, according to Tom Holland. 80,000 pounds have been raised for the new campaign. But with this budget, the alliance is up against the full force of the government, which is determined to push through the £1.7 billion project.

More than just the stone circle

Once completed, the tunnel section would run underground, but it would change the shape of the surface and thus the appearance of the cult site. The earthworks are likely to be the most significant. A huge cut would be made in the ground over a length of almost four kilometers. At a depth that has remained untouched since the construction and active period of the cult site. Today, the stone circle appears as a lone solitaire in a meadow landscape. Archaeologically, the romantic impression of abandonment is deceptive. The monoliths were the focal point of a busy religious center that was used for thousands of years.

New archaeological methods show that the entire area is dotted with cult sites and complexes. They remain hidden from the human eye beneath the meadow landscape. Unlike the stone circle, they have been swallowed up by the landscape. Vincent Gaffney from the University of Birmingham said that we know at most ten percent of what Stonehenge really was and what the site looked like in detail.

Archaeology of the inconspicuous

Archaeology has also evolved. At the beginning of the 19th century, archaeologists were focused on treasures and spectacular finds. Today, it is possible to gain far-reaching insights into past life from the smallest remains, individual bone fragments or layers of garbage. In the past, a privy would simply have been cleared away, but today it offers more information than a proud sword or a jewelry box. These individually rather unspectacular traces would be irretrievably destroyed by the construction work.

Source: Guardian, The Times, Independent