The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: June twenty-first, celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge.

This morning a 3000-year-old ritual took place a grassy plain 70 miles west of London. As the sun's first rays crested the horizon, they illuminated a rectangular stone set in the ground. As the resulting shadow pierced an opening in a circle of standing megaliths and fell on a tiny, stone alter, summer has once again arrived at Stonehenge.

This ring of huge stones set into Salisbury Plain has been a mystery for virtually all of human memory. Theories about its origion abound, but no one really knows why residents of Stone Age Britain transported dozens of huge stones, some weighing up to 45 tons, more than 100 miles and stood them on end in this pattern of concentric circles. Once thought to be a Druid temple created by Merlin the Magician, more modern theories credit Stonehenge with being an astral computer or a guide to the earth's energy lines.

Those notions are popular among the tribes of New Agers who descend on Stonehenge each year to mark the solstice. For over a decade, they and most other visitors have had to contemplate this World Heritage site from a distance, hiking the preserve's perimeter accompanied by a recorded guide. Only the visually impaired and those with special permissions are allowed to walk among the stones.

Even at a distance, beholding these sentinels that have watched over mankind's millennia can be a numinous experience. But to get up close and personal with the ancients, visit Avebury Ring, 20 miles north of Stonehenge, or any of a dozen other stone circles located about Britain.

For information about trips to Stonehenge call the British Tourist Authority at 1-800-462-2748 or www.travelbritain.org

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