Christoper Walken should be allowed to touch anything he wishes up to and including the queen.
The proposition that “nothing bad has happened to Stonehenge due to people’s proximity in the last 4950 years, therefore we can conclude that it will continue to be safe” has some logical flaws. Aside from @APB’s good point that there has probably been more historical damage done than we realize, the world is not the same as it was even 100 years ago, much less thousands. How many people visited Stonehenge in the past compared to how many can visit it now? The growth in population, leisure time, awareness of sites far from home that might be interesting to visit, and advanced transportation methods such as airplanes and cars all mean the the number of people likely to visit Stonehenge today is many times more than the number that would have been proximate to it in the past.
This increase in numbers both increases the likelihood that a lone nutcase with a spray canister will visit Stonehenge, and ups the amount of damage possible done through cumulative touching.
People say, “It’s just a touch, How much damage can it do?” I say compare what they look like now, compared to what they were like new. It used to be a full circle. That’s what “just a touch” can do over time.
“It’s just a wagon, going over rock. How much damage can it do?”
And blind folks too~for 4,000 years, like Stonehenge.
No! Christopher Walken touching Stonehenge will break the final seal keeping the Great Old Ones from invading our reality through the nether rift contained in that magick circle.
I didn’t mean my rant to sound directed toward you. I hope it didn’t come off that way. The mention of people pushing over those rocks made a buried rant bubble up the surface.
I’m glad someone else besides me understands the potential peril!
Well, the evangelicals will be happy.
I assume that they allow blind visitors to listen to the stones and smell them as much as they like.
Actually, at the visitors center there are tactile displays and standing stones where the neolithic houses are.
Blind people aren’t allowed to touch the Mona Lisa, either. It might not be “fair,” but there’s good reason to not let people physically touch priceless artifacts.
No exceptions should be made for Christopher Walken. And shame on Stephen Merchant for even trying to argue otherwise.
Oh, I understand. And I realize I’m more sensitive about this issue because I’ve been legally blind. I will point out, though, that touching an oil painting does nothing to help the visually impaired “see” the painting, so that’s maybe not the best analogy.
Stonehenge has been visited, climbed on, and touched at least since the Roman era. In the Victorian era, visitors were handed chisels and invited to take a chunk home with them. As I understand it, the present issue is that over a million people now visit Stonehenge each year, and a fair number of them have the same idiotic mindset as those who try to pet the bison in Yellowstone, so they’ll deface it or climb the stones, fall off, and sue English Heritage, which manages the stone circles.
None of those situations would be likely if t special provisions were made for special tours for the small percentage of blind visitors, similar to the private access tours that allow a limited number of tourists within the stone circle. But I know it’s extremely unlikely, so I’ll drop the subject which is, I’m afraid, also a bit of a hijack.
When I went to Stonehenge at Midsummer 1977, people still had basically free access to the site and were climbing on the rocks until the cops chased them off.
I camped on the grounds and stayed awake all night to watch the so-called Druids come marching out at 04:00. How the builders were able to lay the stones out so precisely is beyond me, since the sky was so dark and overcast you couldn’t see the sun rise, much less mark the spot on the horizon where it appears.
Hiya, I just registered to add: You can visit Stonehenge on the summer and winter solstices every year and get right up to the stones and touch them. These are the only times you can do this as correctly mentioned up thread they are off limits to ordinary daily visitors. I last went for the solstice in December 2021 but have been many times apart from 2020/21 due to it being closed for covid. The December 21 one was great because of the closures many people assumed it was still closed and stayed away so the crowd was very small. It’s very cold and frosty overnight waiting for the winter sunrise, summer is better as you can walk about the surrounding plains looking at the barrows and avenues before the sunrise due to it being a very short night and not particularly dark. (PS: have been a lurker since about 2002 I think!)
Welcome, WKAMC! Wow, you’ve been a lurker here for 20 years and this is the thread that gets you to join? The mystery and magic of Stonehenge is indeed awesome to behold 
So, the question isn’t whether Christopher Walken should be permitted to touch the stones; it is whether the stones can withstand being in such close proximity to Christopher Walken.
Apropos of nothing:
Stranger
They have tactile objects in the exhibition and specific ‘touching stones’ outside (not in the main circle), for sight impaired people, along with braile signs and guides. Give them a break! More accessibility info here.
It’s not even a real henge…
I don’t know if Walken should be allowed to touch Stonehenge, but he’d look great encased in a solid block in the middle.
Stonehenge has not been granted permission to touch Chuck Norris.