Wiltshire: A weekend in Salisbury and Stonehenge

Salisbury Cathedral
The 123 m spire of Salisbury Cathedral, April 2019

" 'Our friends had been suggesting for a long time that we visit this wonderful town', said a man who identified himself on air as Alexander Petrov."

“Famous not just in Europe, but in the whole world. It’s famous for its 123-metre spire, it’s famous for its clock, the first one ever created in the world, which is still working.”

Old Sarum
View over Salisbury from Old Sarum

“We arrived in Salisbury on 3 March and tried to walk through the town, but we lasted for only half an hour because it was covered in snow,” Petrov told the RT editor Margarita Simonyan. “We specifically went there [again] to see the Old Sarum, Stonehenge and the cathedral and decided to finish this thing on 4 March.”

Stonehenge
Stonehenge, from just outside the paid area

More seriously, it was very nice to spend a pleasant weekend visiting history with a local friend. 
  • The cathedral really does have a big spire. 
  • It's home to one of the oldest clocks in the world (1368). 
  • I very much liked the cathedral's modernist font. 
  • I'd seen the Magna Carta at Lincoln Cathedral on a school trip a long time ago, and had seen the two in the British Library several times in my time in London. Though I'd seen all four together in the British Library's "Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy" 800th anniversary exhibition in 2015, this was the final original manuscript for me to visit in its home cathedral. 
  • Tea in the gardens of the National Trust's Grade I listed Mompesson House of 1701. 
  • Old Sarum hill fort, Norman motte-and-bailey castle, and cathedral ruins. 
  • Parking at the wonderfully underwhelming Woodhenge and Durrington Walls "Superhenge", then a nice walk to Stonehenge along the barrows and tumuli of Salisbury Plain. 
  • I was in Southampton for work anyway, so I didn't even have to pay for the train tickets. 

Summary: 
Date: Saturday 27th - Sunday 28th April 2019
Main takeaway: It's a very big spire. 
Location: Salisbury SP1 2EJ, UK

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