Save Stonehenge: the activists fighting to rescue the UK’s pagan heartland

To celebrate this year’s summer solstice, around 10,000 people flocked to Stonehenge in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Travelling to witness the precise calibration of the ancient stone circle – which aligns with the sunrise of the summer solstice and the sunset of the winter solstice – they will likely contribute to more than a million yearly visitors. For as long as we can remember, people have been drawn in by the myths and mysterious history surrounding the site. Unfortunately, the future of Stonehenge is now equally uncertain.

On July 14, the UK government officially approved plans to build a road tunnel at Stonehenge (maybe they just care more about stealing other people’s heritage than preserving their own). Costing £1.7 billion and featuring an overhaul of eight miles of road, the project aims to reduce traffic and cut journey times. However, the UN’s heritage body, UNESCO, has warned that the work endangers Stonehenge, and could lead to it losing its status as a world heritage site (WHS).

The Stonehenge Alliance is a group of organisations and individuals pushing back against the government’s plans. “It’s an international icon, like the pyramids,” chairman John Adams tells Dazed. “It’s at least 5,000 years old and its purpose is largely unknown.” As he points out, the WHS also encompasses “so much more” than just the stones themselves, including hundreds of burial mounds within a two-mile radius. As a result, Stonehenge is described by UNESCO – alongside nearby Avebury – as among the most famous groups of megaliths (standing stones) in the world. “These holy places and the nearby Neolithic sites are an incomparable testimony to prehistoric times.”

What does the Stonehenge tunnel mean for these sacred slices of history? “It means a dual carriageway, flyover, long deep tunnel cuttings, and a tunnel, all within the UNESCO World Heritage Site, and massive road interchanges right on the edge of the WHS,” says Adams. Independent planners, he notes, have warned that the damage will be “permanent and irreversible”.

The government is sending a clear message by ignoring these environmental and cultural concerns: a few minutes saved on a morning commute is more important than the country’s cultural history and natural landscape. Unfortunately, it’s not a particularly surprising message for anyone who’s been paying attention, suggests Lally MacBeth, a 33-year-old artist and co-founder of Stone Club. “The government ignoring UNESCO feels indicative of their general attitude to the ancient landscape of this country and their wider approach to the environment,” she says. “They are unconcerned by things that they should be deeply concerned by.”

The UK’s growing population of Pagans, and others who find spiritual meaning in ancient sites like Stonehenge, might take away a similar message: the Tories simply don’t care about the ancient rites and rituals their country is built on. “This government is not interested in the idea of a place being holy or sacred,” Adams agrees.

It isn’t the first time this fight has erupted. Initially approved in 2020 (also in defiance of planners’ recommendations) the Stonehenge road scheme was shot down by the UK high court in 2021, amid concerns about the effects on the heritage site. HS2, an “unachievable” rail project that’s absorbed more than £20 billion and caused shocking ecological destruction, has faced similar protests.

Goldi, a 23-year-old activist with links to Stonehenge Heritage Action Group (SHAG), first went to Stonehenge for an equinox gathering, having previously demonstrated against HS2. After realising the importance of the Stonehenge resistance movement, he went on to take part in a mass trespass protest at the site, and eventually moved into an onsite protest camp for around a year and a half, saying: “That was where I would work, and eat, and socialise.”

“One of the main things that drew me to [the camp] was that it was a space for women and trans people to come together and organise, without a lot of the macho culture that was present on the HS2 line,” he adds. Residents also came together to celebrate Pagan holidays throughout the year, organising small festivals that aimed to reignite and reimagine old traditions. Though there was no pressure to actually identify as a Pagan (Goldi describes himself as “culturally” Pagan, but has a complicated relationship with the religious and spiritual aspects), the culture embodied in sites like Stonehenge represented a hopeful, environmentally-conscious alternative to modern capitalism.

Despite the community that has risen up in opposition to the desecration of Stonehenge, transport secretary Mark Harper relaunched the road tunnel project last month. In a document outlining the decision, he argues: “The harm on spatial, visual relations and settings is less than substantial and should be weighed against the public benefits.”

Like Lally, Goldi suggests that the decision comes as no surprise. “I think they’re completely out of touch with the people who they’re supposed to be governing,” he says of Harper and the other government figures backing the project. “They’re sending a message that they don’t really give a shit about you or me.” After all, “[they] haven’t been listening to the thousands of people who are screaming at them about the climate crisis.”

That doesn’t mean people should give up hope, of course. “Individuals can’t contribute in a meaningful way, but communities can,” Goldi says, pointing to the community-building tactics already seen within the Stonehenge protest camp. Even hopping on TikTok or Instagram could help direct attention toward the cause, although he warns that spreading the word on social media is no replacement for real, in-person action, even on a smaller scale, within your local community.

“I’m aware that a lot of people don’t drive or can’t afford to get to Stonehenge,” he adds. That said, he recommends going at least once if you can, “even if it’s just to bask in the hellish glow of the English Heritage gift shop... to observe the cordoning-off and the policing and the fences” that restrict people from interacting with the ancient site.

Lally adds that there are a “number of fantastic organisations” that are fighting to stop the tunnel, and fundraising for these groups is a good way to join the fight if you can’t get to Stonehenge in person. An even easier action you can take is to simply talk about it with friends, and “generally [raise] awareness of how important it is to care for the landscape and ancient sites of Britain and beyond, for future generations to enjoy”.

Want to help save Stonehenge? Find out more about the Stonehenge Alliance campaign here.