Among the many legends connected with this famous site is one telling of its construction by Merlin. He was asked by Arthur’s father, King Uther Pendragon, to construct a fitting memorial for his brother Ambrosius and the War Lords of Britain felled by Saxon treachery in the massacre known as the Night of the Long Knives.

Merlin journeyed to Ireland in search of the fabled Giant’s Dance, a circle of stones which were believed to possess curative properties if water in which they had been washed was used to bathe the sick.

Despite numerous theories, which claim Stonehenge to be anything from an ancient observatory to a Druid temple, little is known about the true origin or purpose of this mighty circle of stones.

After a great battle, Merlin conveyed the stones by magic to the shore of the sea, then floated them on rafts across to Britain and set them up on the plain near Salisbury. It has been suggested that this story may contain a distant memory of the method by which the ancient blue-stones, quarried in the Prescelly Mountains far to the north, were brought by sea to the mouth of the River Avon and then taken inland on huge wooden rollers to their present site. Despite numerous theories, which claim Stonehenge to be anything from an ancient observatory to a Druid temple, little is known about the true origin or purpose of this mighty circle of stones.