On a crisp Sunday morning, twenty intrepid Fourth Formers (Year 9) set off to view the sunrise over Stonehenge. But this was no ordinary trip or the usual touristic experience available to most folk. The lucky members of 4U had special permission from English Heritage to have stone-circle access in amongst the great stones themselves. So it was that, in hushed silence, they saw the sun rise majestically over the neolithic megaliths. As part of their studies on the ‘Origins of Religion’, Fourth Formers have had the chance to explore the ancient sacred world and focussed particularly on the enigmatic Stonehenge site. To have the opportunity to experience this world heritage site with almost exclusive use, albeit for a few resident crows and ravens is a rare one indeed.
Following our special access visit, the pupils retraced the steps of the ancients along the Stonehenge Avenue, to the vast Stonehenge Cursus, Woodhenge and the stone age settlement of Durrington Walls. As they did so, they followed a path from what scholars believe is the world of the ancestors to the world of the living.
For years to come as they sit in a traffic jam on the A303, these lucky pupils will no longer look upon this place as collection of distant, mundane-looking stones but as an extraordinary site whose mystery holds a special place in the history of the world.
To find out more about Theology, Philosophy and Ethics at Charterhouse follow the link.
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