M E g A L i T h i A - The Druids and Stonehenge

Modern Druids are not a continuous tradition with the old Druids written about by Roman writers in the early years of the first millennium - modern Druidry was established in the 18th century.

Left - Druids as Stukely pictured them in 1740

It was the Romans who first associated Stonehenge with the ancient Druids, followed by William Stukely with his "Stonehenge, a Temple restor'd to the British Druids" in 1740. This association has stuck, and the Druids have been associated with Stonehenge in the popular consciousness for some time. So much so that modern Druids sometimes get to perform rituals at Stonehenge at the midsummer solstice.

The Romans persecuted the Druids for their opposition to the Empire, and Tacitus gives us a graphic description of the Druids driven back to the Isle of Anglesey to make their last stand, howling and snarling curses across the Menai Straits at the Romans coming to massacre them.

Though it is not clear from the Latin writings that the Druids were actually using Stonehenge, the Romans seemed to think they were, and it is possible that it was the Romans who were responsible for some of the damage to it during the Roman purge of Druids in AD 61.

Either way, modern Druids are separated by a thousand years from those the Romans fought, so we cannot take their rituals as indicative of what the Neolithic people may have done at Stonehenge.