Stonehenge Landscape

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
The western end of the Stonehenge Cursus, part of the National Trust Stonehenge Landscape
Location	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iii
Reference	373
UNESCO region	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	1986 (10th Session)

Coordinates: 51°10′44″N 1°49′41″W / 51.179°N 1.828°W / 51.179; -1.828

The Stonehenge Landscape is a property of The National Trust, located on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. The estate (formerly known as Stonehenge Historic Landscape and before that as Stonehenge Down) covers 2,100 acres (850 ha) surrounding the neolithic monument of Stonehenge which is administered by English Heritage. Much of the land is designated open access by the Trust, including the fields immediately around Stonehenge and other fields that become available as part of the chalk grassland reversion project (see below).

Much of the land was acquired in 1927 after a public appeal was launched to prevent further development on the fields around the monument. The successfully purchased land was given to the Trust for the benefit of the nation. Shortly afterwards such structures as cottages and an old World War I aerodrome were removed from the immediate vicinity of the stones. There are two different memorials to fatal flying accidents in the area. Eustace Loraine and Staff Sergeant Wilson were killed in 1912 near to the new Stonehenge Visitors' centre. Major Hewetson was killed in a flying accident near Fargo Wood in July 1913. Later the Trust acquired more land, principally after the purchase of an adjacent farm in the early 21st century.

The land owned by the Trust comprises almost one third of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, and contains nearly 400 ancient monuments (most of them scheduled). These monuments include the enormous earthwork known as the Stonehenge Cursus, the Avenue, Woodhenge and Durrington Walls as well as numerous burial mounds known as barrows. The estate also includes some of the Nile Clumps, large clumps of trees on arable farmland, said to represent ship positions at the Battle of the Nile. This is said to form a large memorial to Nelson created by a local landowner after Nelson died.