Forbidden History - The Stonehenge Mystery

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

In this episode of the Forbidden History podcast, we’re joined by Tony McMahon to discuss the enigma that is Stonehenge. Who built this 5000 year old monument and how? We cover the various theories and mysteries that have surrounded this remarkable site over the years.  Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://surfshark.com/forbiddenhistory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or use code FORBIDDENHISTORY at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! Go to ⁠nakedwines.co.uk/forbidden⁠ to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines for just £39.99, with delivery included. Cast List: Tony McMahon: Former BBC news producer, author, print journalist and historian  Eric Meyers: Narrator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Forbidden History Podcast. We're an independent podcast and advertisements help keep us going. Ads are automatically placed and not specifically chosen or endorsed by us unless read by me the host. Thanks for supporting the show. Five thousand years ago, on a wind-swept plane in Britain, someone built the impossible. A circle of stones so vast, so precise, that we still cannot save for certain. why it was made or how. The sheer age of Stonehenge is something that takes your breath away. This is something that began to be built before the pyramids in Egypt.

And when you consider the technology available 5,000 years ago, this is a Herculean task to have got these enormous objects to this point. In this episode of Forbidden History, We explore the many theories surrounding one of the world's oldest and perhaps most misunderstood enigmas. This is the Stonehenge mystery. In the Middle Ages, we have a theory that Merlin, who features as you know in the stories of King Arthur, that Merlin has something to do with the construction of Stonehenge, that he may even have used either magic or, believe it or not, giants.

To help guide us through the myths, legends and tall tales of this legendary site, we're joined by investigative historian, journalist and author, Tony McMahon. Stonehenge is a mysterious place and has mystified people for millennia. At over 5,000 years old, this monument predates the great pyramid of Giza and has endured longer than any of the great empires of antiquity. It is a structure so improbable that it challenges our very assumptions about what people of the Neolithic period were capable of. Its sheer scale and the shape of this place and the way it was built has simply confused, inspired people for many, many years. Was it a prehistoric temple?

Was it an astronomical observatory? We're still trying to figure out what exactly Stonehenge is today. Stonehenge is arranged in concentric circles. It consists of an outer ring of towering sandstone blocks called sarsons, topped with horizontal lintels and an inner horseshoe of smaller blue stones set deep into the earth. At its center stand the great trillathons, pairs of upright stones, crowned by a single lintel framing the heart of the monument. It's a mix of blue stones and sarsons.

The heaviest sarsen weighs something like 30 tons. And what people have tried to figure out is how could these Neolithic people have transported these enormous blocks of stone to where they stand today? Picturing these colossal stones inching their way across the ancient landscape is to imagine a feat almost beyond belief.

An army of workers transporting each monolith over miles of rugged terrain and then balancing them atop one another. However they did it, the process was anything but simple. And when you consider the technology available 5,000 years ago, this is a Herculean task

to have got these enormous objects to this point. In 2020, a study conducted by the University of Brighton concluded that the large Sarsons were a direct chemical match to those found at West Woods near Marlborough, some 15 miles north of the side of Stonehenge. But the Blue Stones, their origin lies much farther afield, in the Priscilla Hills of Wales, around 180 miles from Salisbury Plain. That distance across rivers, forests, and rough terrain is staggering when you remember that Neolithic builders are believed to have had no technology that would be sufficient for this mammoth task.

And yet, somehow, the stones were transported hundreds of miles. Archaeologists have suggested log rollers, sleds, and even rafts floating down ancient waterways. What has become clear to historians and archaeologists in recent times is that Stonehenge did not sit in isolation. This was part of a complex. What has been found in the landscape are a series of interconnections which connects Stonehenge with other landmarks in the landscape. And this includes an earthwork avenue, so called, that connects Stonehenge to the River Avon. But the avenue to the River Avon may have been more than just a path. Nearby, the remains of Durrington Walls, a massive circular earthwork, has also been found

to be connected to the Avon, suggesting a counterpart to Stonehenge. Some scholars even believe it may have been a ceremonial road between the two. The Durrington Walls, with its large settlement and evidence of feasting, representing the land of the living, and Stonehenge, surrounded by burial mounds, signifying the land of the dead. Some argue that the River Avon, being the link between both sites, symbolized the journey between life and death, a ceremonial procession route that the living used to carry their dead to the river, and perhaps into the afterlife. life. So it seems to have been part of a huge ceremonial site that some believe was seven times bigger

than Central Park in New York. The sheer scale of this landscape is hard to comprehend. Imagine Central Park in New York, then multiply it sevenfold. Stonehenge sat within a ritual world of astonishing size. So what is Stonehenge? Why did these people go through all this effort to build such a structure? Throughout history, different eras have had various ideas about who created it and why. Stonehenge has attracted all kinds of outlandish theories down the centuries because people just don't seem to be able to make sense of this structure. So, for example, in the Middle Ages, we have a theory that Merlin, who features, as you know,

in the stories of King Arthur, that Merlin has something to be able to make sense. to do with the construction of Stonehenge, that he may even have used either magic, or, believe it or not, giants, to move huge stones from Ireland that were then brought to England to create Stonehenge. Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his history of the Kings of Britain, he tells the story of how Merlin magically moved these stones into place. But why Ireland? Geoffrey of Monmouth hints that the stones were taken from a site of ancient power across the water, a place already charged with magic. Some traditions even suggest the monument was originally a stone circle known as Giant's Ring or Giant's Round that was transported

across the sea before Merlin raised it on Salisbury Plain. While historians dismissed the tale, it shows how Stonehenge became a canvas onto which the medieval imagination could project itself. But long before medieval times, the Romans also hypothesized on its origin, and their conclusions continued to affect some of the more modern ideas of its origins. When the Romans first arrived in Britain, they encountered the Druids, Celtic priests, who held their rituals in sacred groves and on remote hills. Seeing Stonehenge already ancient and abandoned, Roman writers assumed it was one of of their temples, built by these mysterious priests long before the empire set foot on British soil.

The druids, of course, terrified the Romans, and they are another, if you want, element of the ancient British story which continues to amaze us. But there isn't any connection between the druids and Stonehenge, even though modern druids have held events at Stonehenge, have held rituals at Stonehenge to mark the solstices, and yet this connection, simply isn't true. In the 19th and 20th centuries, druidism was revived as part of a romantic return to Britain's pagan roots. The blame for the connection between the druids and Stonehenge

lies with two 17th century historians, John Aubrey and William Stucley, who were well-intentioned, but they simply got the wrong end of the stick. So if the druids never constructed Stonehenge, who did? The big question has led to some incredibly outlandish theories, as most mysteries of this age do. Stonehenge is so unusual in appearance that almost inevitably it's been associated with ancient alien theory.

And Eric von Danikin, who wrote The Characres the Gods in the 1960s, proposed that aliens had actually helped with the construction of Stonehenge, that it may even have served as some kind of landing pad for spaceships. Now he based this idea in a similar way that he did with the pyramids on the idea that people at the time simply could not have built this structure. Von Danikin's book was a cultural phenomenon, inspiring generations to wonder if the great monuments of antiquity really were human achievements. He argued that the 30-ton stones dragged across impossible distances were proof that our ancestors had helped. from above. Von Danakin made the same claim about the pyramids of Giza and the vast geoglyphs of Nazca in Peru. In his vision, these were not human shrines at all, but air strips or beacons for spacecraft. Linking Stonehenge to this global pattern gave the theory powerful

appeal. Of course, archaeologists reject the notion. They point instead to experiments showing how stones can be hauled with ropes, sleds, and sheer manpower. To many, invoking aliens, dismisses the ingenuity and determination of Neolithic peoples. We continue with the story after the break. Stonehenge may not have been built by visitors from above, but there's little doubt that those who raised Stonehenge were looking toward the heavens. In fact, the careful positioning of the stones hints at a deep awareness of the sky and light. Investigative historian, author and journalist, Tony McMahon, explains more. One of the most popular views about Stonehenge is that

it operates as a kind of solar calendar, and that is that the arrangement of its stones track the solar year with specific stones aligned with the sun's movements on significant dates, obviously particularly the solstices. At mid-summer, the sun rises directly over the heel stone outside the circle, flooding the monument with light. At midwinter, the sun sets in perfect alignment with the avenue leading in. This theory proposes Stonehenge was used to mark the passage of days, weeks, and months. Some archaeologists even suggest that the 30 Sarsons in the outer circle mirror the days

of a month, divided into three weeks of 10 days each. Why would that have been done? Well, this was an agricultural society. So people would have used Stonehenge in a way like a giant clock or a giant calendar. So the evidence for this is the alignment of the stones, with the sunrise on the summer solstice and the sunset at the winter solstice and it's argued that this alignment is not random. It's something that's been carefully constructed as a feature of the monument. Now not everybody agrees with this, this solar calendar theory has been disputed and many claim that the primary function of Stonehenge was as a burial site, a necropolis. And there are various graves undoubtedly in the area, including one that's very

very distinctive the so-called Amesbury Archer. In fact, the area around Stonehenge has the densest concentration of ancient burial mound anywhere in Britain. In 2002, archaeologists uncovered a grave just three miles from Stonehenge that sent shockwaves through the study of Britain's prehistory. The man, known as the Amesbury Archer, was buried around 2003 300 BC, with over 100 grave goods, including gold hair ornaments, copper knives, and flint arrowheads.

Tests on his teeth revealed he was not local, but had grown up in Central Europe, most likely in the Alps region, making him one of the earliest known migrants to Britain. His presence shows Stonehenge could have been a site of international significance, drawing people, perhaps pilgrims from across Europe. It's very important for us to realize that Stonehenge was part of this ceremonial landscape. And these were people who were much closer to the land, who paid a lot of attention to the shape of the land and features in the landscape, and ascribed sacred meaning to that. So the whole area around Stonehenge was more than likely a holy,

place where ritual activity was conducted and ceremonies. And there have been discoveries of so-called feasting pits, which contain animal remains, especially cattle bones. The scale of these feasts is staggering. Some pits contain the remains of hundreds of cattle, their bones deliberately broken for marrow. Others hold the bones of pigs slaughtered in midwinter, suggesting great seasonal gatherings. For over a decade, teams from University College London and the universities of York,

Cardiff and Sheffield worked on a project called Feast Food at Stonehenge. The examination of animal bones and teeth found nearby suggested cows and pigs were brought to Stonehenge from as far afield as Northeast Scotland, more than 500 miles away. This discovery helped shed light on the significance of Stonehenge, suggesting that people from all corners of Britain would have known about this place of pilgrimage and celebration, and possibly even travelled there, feasting together in enormous gatherings. So there was obviously a great amount of feasting taking place, and these kind of feasts were holy events, where the community came together to honour the gods in a special place.

So Stonehenge and the whole area around it is somewhere in place. incredibly special. In prehistoric societies, communal feasts were more than celebrations. They were politics. Sharing food helped to bind communities together and allowed leaders to display their power. This tradition of feasting survived all the way to medieval societies in Europe, and even some modern cultures practice similar customs. Another theory claims that Stonehenge may be the priestly.

primeval equivalent of another famous pilgrimage location. Stonehenge may have been like Lourdes, for example, in France, somewhere where people came from all over the country and even possibly from Europe, from very far away, to worship at a place that had a particular holy significance. Feasting and worshipping strongly suggests that Stonehenge was a place of community. But not every theory about the site. site is so celebratory. Some believe the same stones that hosted sacred holy events may also have witnessed something much darker and primal. Another more macabre theory about Stonehenge

is that the whole point of this structure was as a center for human sacrifice, or at least animal sacrifice. And the belief is that as this was constructed somewhere around 3,000 BC and operated between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC, that this was a time when human sacrifice could have been conducted. And there were sort of early interpretations of some of the human finds, including children, skulls of children and so on, that said that the damage to the skeletons showed that these people had been violently sacrificed. The evidence is contested. fractured bones, children's remains, and arrow wounds that may or may not have been fatal.

Some archaeologists argue that these point to sacrifice. Others insist they are simply the marks of ancient burial. And of course this plays to the discovery of so-called bog bodies across Northern Europe and Ireland, which shows evidence of people having been strangled and hit over the head in sacrifices. as though most of these bog bodies happen a long time after Stonehenge was built. Across northern Europe, peat bogs have produced eerily preserved corpses, strangled, stabbed, even ritually bound. The famous Tollandman in Denmark, his face still serene after 2,000 years,

shows that ritual killing was real in Europe. Later, writers would revoke the image of druids conducting grisly ceremonies at Stonehenge, binding the site forever to visions of sacrifice. Some even argued that the famous Amesbury Archer had been executed by his own arrows. Stories like these captured the public's attention, and factual or not, it led to very real outcomes. For thousands of years, Stonehenge commanded respect. But in the modern era, It became something else, a magnet for rebellion, counterculture, and confrontation. Access to Stonehenge today is a lot more restricted that it was even 30 or 40 years ago. And the reason for that was that over the centuries Stonehenge has attracted many mystics and alternative religions.

By the 1960s, the stones were no longer just an ancient monument in the hills. They were a stage for a new kind of ritual. And from the 1960s, there were free festivals being held at Stonehenge that actually rivaled Glastonbury, which became ultimately the far more successful music festival. Many people in the hippie culture and kind of the traveller culture, an alternative scene of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s would congregate at Stonehenge. They also, unfortunately, sometimes, graffeted on the monument, and you can still see etched out in moss the words love on one of the stones from the 1960s or 1970s. All of this culminated in 1985 in a pitch battle between travellers and hippies at the site and the police, which became known as the Battle of the Beanfield. And this was really based on a decision by the authorities to remove this whole alternative scene from Stonehenge

and to turn it into a protected public monument. On June 1st, 1985, a convoy of hundreds of New Age travellers set out for Stonehenge to stage their annual free festival. They never made it. Just seven miles from the stones, police set up roadblocks and ambushed the convoy in a Wiltshire field. Accounts describe officers smashing windshields and dragging families from their vehicles. Caravans were overturned, belongings scattered, and children caught in the chaos. By the end of the day, more than 500 people had been arrested. It was the largest mass arrest in British history at the time.

But many people felt that Stonehenge should remain open to everybody, that should remain somewhere where people could come to worship today. But after a very violent confrontation with police, Stonehenge was, if you want, cleansed of its religion. It's no surprise that the centuries of activity going on around Stonehenge has led to damages over time. Not everything there is quite as ancient as it seems. One thing you'll notice if you visit Stonehenge

is that some of the stones are missing. And unfortunately, what happened over time is that some of the stones fell down, but they were also repurposed into other buildings. Once they'd fallen, local farmers, local landowners, would have seen no reason not to take them away, basically break them up and put them into their farmhouse. house or their farm walls.

Just as blocks of Hadrian's wall were quarried to build cottages, fallen stones from Stonehenge were recycled into the fabric of ordinary life. What we see today is not the whole circle that once stood. And some of the stones have fallen in relatively recent times at the end of the 18th century in 1900 and then in the 20th century, especially in the 1950s, 1960s, and in the 20th century, Especially in the 1950s, 1960s, some of the stones were actually re-erected, and concrete even was used to secure them in place. It sometimes disappoints people because they feel that the stones should have been left where they fall.

But some of what you see at Stonehenge today has been reconstructed. But most of it, the overwhelming majority of it, is what Neolithic people constructed. It has hosted feasts and perhaps sacrifices. witnessed pilgrimages and protests, and even in modern times, has been fought over in fields and festivals. Due to its impossible age and mystery, people throughout time have used the site as a canvas to project their own worldview and ideals onto the site. Each era recrafts new image of Stone Edge, reshaping the meaning of the place, as much as the physical stones that lay there.

Stonehenge has been many things, a calendar of the sun, a cemetery for the dead, a gathering place for the living, and a canvas for myth. Merlin, druids, even visitors from space have all been invoked to explain its impossible stones. Stonehenge in ancient times was in operation for thousands of years. And there's evidence when you visit the site that it actually changed over times. The stones were repositioned. And it's possible that the way it was seen, the way it was viewed by those who were worshipping there or sacrificing there or using it as a calendar, that their perception of it altered.

And so it's not so surprising maybe that right down to our times today, people have approached Stonehenge in different ways. and it continues to exercise a powerful hold on our imagination. And perhaps that is the true secret of Stonehenge. Not that it was one thing, fixed and eternal, but that it has always been many things. A monument that evolves with the people who approach it. A sacred landscape, a contested battleground, a stage for both history and imagination. So what do you think? With Stonehenge a

temple, a tomb, a calendar, or something stranger still? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for exploring the past with us today. If you like this episode, please be sure to follow for more. We post new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Don't forget to leave a comment below, and feel free to leave us a rating or review. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners like you. And for more from the Like a Shot Network, check out where did everyone go, Histories of the Abandoned, a deep dive into the incredible stories behind forgotten places, available now on your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for listening.