Stonehenge welcomes back first visitors in over 3 months
The heritage site has been shut since New Year's Eve
After more than 14 weeks of being closed, staff at Stonehenge say they're "delighted" they were able to welcome back visitors today (Monday 2nd April).
With pre-booking in place, around 1,500 people were expected to visit the stone circle on it's first day.
Jennifer Davies, Head of Historic Properties, was over the moon to see many visitors taking in the sight of the famous landmark once again.
She said:
"I think the best way to describe this morning's atmosphere is joyful to be honest, beaming smiles from people arriving on site thrilled to be out, the sun is shining on us up on Salisbury Plain and it's just a brilliant day.
It certainly was emotional seeing people walking up this morning, I feel really proud that we can welcome people to this part of the world, I'm really pleased with my team as they've worked so hard making it all safe and ready for visitors and we're just thrilled to welcome them really.
We've been closed since New Year's Eve so its been a really long time and for the charity English Heritage has obviously lost a lot of money through having it's sites closed and we've been very lucky to use the government's furlough scheme but it's been really challenging, we've been looking after each other's wellbeing and keeping in touch and those of us still working have been working really hard to get set and get ready for as soon as we had a date we were there."
With the historical site not being as busy compared to "normal" times, local people who have never been up to the stones are being encouraged to do so.
English Heritage say there will never be a better time.
PLEA TO PRE-BOOK VISIT
In order to keep everyone safe English Heritage have had to make some small changes.
These include social distancing, masks inside the visitor centre and on the buses and people are being encouraged to walk from the centre to the stones.
Pre-booking to visit Stonehenge is also mandatory, as this helps them able to monitor how many people are on the site at one time.
You can do so by going to English Heritage's website.