Stonehenge and Bath for Guides

Head through the visitor centre first, then take the shuttle to the stones. Just keep the group together and remind them that the whole area is part of the site – not just the monument. If anyone asks why it’s so empty around here, it’s because the ancient landscape was used for ceremonies and processions, so it’s meant to feel wide and open.

When you get close, you’ll see two types of stones – the big local ones and the smaller ones that came from Wales. If someone asks how they moved them, the honest answer is that we’re not completely sure. The important bit to say is that it took a lot of planning and a huge community effort, which tells us Stonehenge mattered to the people who built it.

A useful point to mention is that Stonehenge lines up with the sunrise and sunset at midwinter and midsummer. You don’t need to explain more than that. It shows they were paying attention to the seasons, probably for rituals or farming. If you forget the details, just say the monument works like a giant calendar.

Someone will almost definitely bring up druids or aliens. You can safely say that those ideas are modern stories and not backed by archaeology. A good fallback line is: ‘We know it changed over many centuries, so it wasn’t built all at once. Researchers are still figuring out the details.’ That keeps you covered without needing specialist knowledge.

When you start walking, point out that almost all the buildings are made of the same pale stone. That’s why the city looks so neat. Bath is built around natural hot springs, but the city centre today is mostly from the Georgian period, which is why everything looks very ordered and symmetrical.

When you reach the Royal Crescent, you can say it’s a long curved row of houses designed to impress wealthy visitors. The front looks perfect, but the backs were built by different builders, so they’re not identical. At the Circus, mention that it’s a full circle and some people think the design was inspired by ancient Roman arenas. 

For the Abbey, point out the tall windows and the fan-shaped ceiling inside – it’s an easy visual cue. If you need a quick historical line, say the Abbey has been rebuilt several times over the centuries, but the current look is late medieval. The ladders with angels on the front are based on a dream one of the early bishops said he had.

When you get to the bridge, the key fact is that it’s one of the few bridges in the world with shops along both sides. Mention the river is stronger than it looks, which is why there’s a big curved weir just below the bridge. If someone asks why it matters, say it helped Bath expand across the river.