{"id":371694,"date":"2026-01-15T17:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371694\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:00:10","slug":"new-public-footpath-planned-for-famous-ancient-monument-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371694\/","title":{"rendered":"New Public Footpath Planned For Famous Ancient Monument in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone\u00a0knows Stonehenge, but did you know that\u00a0the Wiltshire\u00a0landmark isn\u2019t not\u00a0even the\u00a0oldest set of prehistoric standing stones still\u00a0surviving\u00a0in the UK?\u00a0Several\u00a0sites\u00a0predate the Wiltshire circle, including the iconic Calanais (or Callanish) Stones in the Hebrides.<\/p>\n

Despite being older than Stonehenge and very famous in their own right,\u00a0most people are a lot\u00a0less familiar with the Calanais.\u00a0They receive about a quarter of the annual footfall of their\u00a0southern siblings,\u00a0probably due to the fact that\u00a0they are a lot more out of the way.<\/p>\n

Instead of being a short-ish drive from London, the Scottish monument, which is thought to have held some sort of astronomical significance to neolithic islanders, is on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. It\u2019s also in the middle of a field. There isn\u2019t even a road directing you toward it \u2013 but that could soon change.<\/p>\n

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has applied for planning permission to build a path around the ancient stones in order to offer onlookers better views and reduce erosion of the surrounding land.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED:\u00a0The 16 best new things to do in the UK in 2026, according to Time Out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This comes after a survey in 2020 indicated that footfall from more than 150,000 visitors each year was beginning to cause serious damage to the ground at the base of the stones, making them less secure. Some projections estimate that\u00a0the number could climb to over 200,000 by 2030, making it all the more important to put safeguards in place now.<\/p>\n

\"Calanish
\nPhotograph: Shutterstock <\/p>\n

A walkway was previously put in place in 1993 for similar reasons, but it was removed in 2008 as it was not deemed to be effective at reducing erosion. To remedy that, this time around there will be staff on hand to encourage people to stay on the path when the weather makes conditions particularly fragile.<\/p>\n

HES has also requested permission to lower a nearby 200-year-old stone wall. It was once put in place to outline what land was owned by a local farmer, but today it mostly just makes it more difficult to see the stones from some angles.<\/p>\n

The site is also set to get an entry fee later this year, after the government approved a request in 2025. There\u2019s no date as to when this cost will come into effect, so if you make your way up to Lewis soon you should still be able to catch a glimpse free of charge.<\/p>\n

This is the beautiful British town that is one of Time Out\u2019s best places to visit in the world in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Plus: This legendary northern stadium will soon become one of the UK\u2019s biggest football grounds<\/a><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop:\u00a0sign up to our free Time Out UK newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone\u00a0knows Stonehenge, but did you know that\u00a0the Wiltshire\u00a0landmark isn\u2019t not\u00a0even the\u00a0oldest set of prehistoric standing stones still\u00a0surviving\u00a0in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1422,59,57,58,50,1423,1420,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-371694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-news-city-life","tag-things-to-do","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}