Why you can’t touch Stonehenge any more
1.4 million visitors a year is the short answer: but the long answer is fascinating. | AD: 🌎 Get an exclusive discount on Saily data plans! Use code TOMSCOTT at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/tomscott ⛵ | 🗺️ England series map: https://tomscott.com/england/
🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)
❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: https://lateralcast.com/ https://youtube.com/lateralcast/
👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: https://youtube.com/techdif
Written and presented by
Tom Scott
Producers
for Penny4 https://penny4.co.uk/
Cambria Bailey-Jones
Guy Larsen
Studio Associate Producer
Heloise Lowenthal
Studio Director of Photography
Jamie MacLeod
Studio Gaffer
Frank Hammond
Head of Post
for Breadbox Studios https://www.breadboxstudios.co.uk/
Mandy Celine
Associate Post Producer
Isla McTear
Senior Editor
Myles Wheeler
Online Editor
Jamie MacLeod
Assistant Editor
Alex “J’Rassic” Bate
Sound Supervisor
Dan Pugsley
Sound Assistant
Maggy Apodaca
Subtitles by So Speedy https://www.sospeedy.co.uk/
With thanks to the Historic County Borders Project https://www.county-borders.co.uk/
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images
Executive Producer
Tom Scott
© Pad 26 Limited MMXXVI
@TomScottGo
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
My thanks to Win and all the English Heritage team; this was an incredible privilege. | AD: 🌎 Get an exclusive discount on Saily data plans! Use code TOMSCOTT at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/tomscott ⛵
@10thdoctor15
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
It's good to preserve historical sites, but at some point, things just become part of the history
@castironrichie1445
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
70-80+ years ago ppl knocked some down
@starturtlebetter
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
anymore is one word thomas scott
@MrSamir1453
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Is it me, or does the curator (at times) sound like Bob Mortimer? 🙂
@CoreyArsenault-c8t
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Tom Scott returned before GTA 6
@HeavyNeck-oq4nt
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Bro just rubbing his jacket all over the stones smdh
@Gmarkooo
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
maybe uh oh….
@mohe81
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Just wait until the students come… Jk, as long as there is no Nike store around the corner you are safe.
@Amussing_smile
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Wait he came back?
@Shwayne
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Imagine what it feels like to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge every day! That one deserves a road passing right through it though.
@crooked8168
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
So these are some stones surrounded by so many theories 🙂
No wonder they don't appreciate the site
@FuturoSegurançadoAragonê
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Rebuild stonehenge!
@sslaytor
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
OMG – Stonehenge is Lego!
@CaptainBlagbird
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
How did people build this without Scrum meetings?? 🤯
/s
@Fatbond0007
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
must be such a hard job being the curator for stonehenge, having to figure out how to display it each year must be really tough
@skye4485
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
im all for not having people climb on or etch words into the stones, but who cares about the funkn lichen. let people touch the stones.
@minimalaz
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
I can't stop thinking about how those would use a good powerwash
@whalt
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
If the primary interest in these stones in anthropological then why are we concerned about preserving lichens? Obviously chipping away at the rock is terrible but lichens are just weathering away the rocks at a slower pace and they wouldn't't be growing there if humans hadn't placed giant slabs of exposed rock for them to munch on. I'm all for preserving these human made wonders but let's be clear about exactly what we are trying to preserve.
@Myllorelion
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
I am shocked he did not ask to touch at least one. Surely it would have survived one privileged individual finding a place without growth where others have already done damage to just touch a fingertip to it.
Or maybe he did, and edited it out. =P
@BeefIngot
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
I like that most of his answers were "exactly" like just "no clue".
I do wonder if this was just made as a cool thing and then abandoned like a decommissioned mall.
@S-WIDDA-K
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Lets ignore the masonic, hermetic, druid influence of these rocks aye? 😂😂
@StevenAcunaBG05
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
It's always bothered me when they restrict monument like this. He mentions this in his conclusion how in thousand of years from now, they will see us as the primitive people enjoying the site. I'll put up a monument of my own one day and make it clear it will always and forever be free to interact with. Because tough I'm only on this planet for a short time, a monument can live far beyond. And the same way I shouldn't fear my inevitable death and decay, I should give that opportunity to the creations I have left behind.
@Nigel_Broatch
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Have you considered recording at 50 FPS so the image isn't so jumpy when the camera pans around?
@shankz8854
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Is this the guy who quit YouTube a year or so ago?
@owensmith7530
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
In 1994 I drove a number of times between Cambridge and Devon on the A303. No traffic jams for Stonehenge back then, but also nothing else not even a fence that I recall. One sunny day when I had plenty of time I pulled off the road and parked on the grass. Sheep were grazing freely around the stones and no-one had told them not to touch the stones. I spent a good hour wandering around Stonehenge and not a single other person was there that entire time. As Tom said, it wasn't famous and on everyone's bucket list back then, but I had studied it briefly in school and had historian friends.
@owensmith7530
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
There was writing at the time of Stonehenge, but not in England or even Europe. The first Hieroglyphics date to around the earliest times of Stonehenge, and I believe there was also the earliest forms of writing elsewhere in the Middle East.
@specs232
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
when he mentioned the druid ritual i started shaking and sweating heavily…
@Magnimate
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Didn't you quit ?
@alfiebru2130
November 12, 2026 at 1:46 pm
I went to the summer solstice here in 2025 and there was a literal party inside the stones – thousands of people in and around the stones, drummers and dancers in the middle. Druids, monks hippies everywhere. I'm not sure if it is still the case but people were climbing on the stones just 1 year ago