Historian blasts 'deranged' rival for saying Stonehenge is 'overrated'
Historian Tom Holland blasts ‘deranged’ rival Dan Snow for claiming Stonehenge is ‘overrated’ and saying tourists should visit Durham Cathedral instead
- Dan Snow came under fire after calling the Bronze age site ‘abit crap’
- Tom Holland hit back and said it was one of England’s most iconic monuments
- Both of them agreed history lovers should avoid Wiltshire and Bath
Historian Tom Holland slammed his ‘deranged’ rival Dan Snow after he claimed the Stonehenge was ‘overrated’ and said tourists should visit Durham Cathedral instead.
Mr Snow came under fire after he said history-lovers should go to the North and see Durham Cathedral, Hardian’s Wall and Stirling Castle if they wanted to immerse themselves in British history.
The TV presenter told the podcast Moon Under Water podcast Stonehenge was ‘abit crap’ and said Americans flying from the Atlantic would find it underwhelming compared to the great wonders of the world like the Taj Mahal.
But bestselling historian Tom Holland was in disbelief after his counterpart tarnished the 5,000 monument.
Holland said: ‘He has gone deranged… If you are a tourist you want to see iconic sites and I would say the two sites in Britain you would recognise from a silhouette are the Houses of Parliament and Stonehenge.’
The 54-year-old author agreed with Snow that daytrippers should avoid Bath and Windsor but Salisbury and its surrounding areas had so much to offer including England’s tallest spire and an original copy of the Magna Carta.
Dan Snow (pictured left) came under fire after he called Stonehenge ‘overrated’ and said tourists and history lovers should visit the North of England if they wanted to bask themselves in Britain’s past. Meanwhile Tom Holland (pictured right) slapped his counterpart down and claimed it was Britain’s greatest prehistoric monument
On The Rest is History Podcast, Holland told his co-host Dominic Sandbrook: ‘Salisbury has Britain’s greatest prehistoric monument [in Stonehenge]; it has Britain’s tallest spire, which attracts visitors not just from America but from across Russia; and it has in Old Sarum an Iron Age fort that is Roman city, a medieval castle and home to an abandoned cathedral and a rotten borough, so you have everything.’
Snow hit back at his contemporary and claimed his upbringing in the local area had tinted his vision and said ‘his bias for warm ale, cricket and ham hock has blinded him to the deeper forces that have shaped our world’.
Durham Cathedral (pictured) originates from the 11th century and is renowned as a masterpiece of Norman architecture. Historian Dan Snow said visitors should visit this masterpiece compared to the Stonehenge
Stonehenge (pictured above) is a World Heritage site and is Britain’s greatest prehistoric monument according to historian Tom Holland. The circular arrangement on Salisbury Plain took more than 1,000 years to build
Holland is the president of Stonehenge Alliance and is the author of Making of the Western Mind and Dominion.
He is campaigning against Government proposals to expand the A303 road and hide it in a tunnel dug across the Stonehenge world heritage site.
Stonehenge was constructed 5,000 years ago in the Neolithic age and took more than 1,000 years to build over four separate stages.
The enormous stones stand tall in a circular arrangement and was put up by thousands of ancient people.
Historians are unsure of the site’s purpose but the monument on Salisbury Plain was aligned on the sun and could have been used as an area for observing the sun and the moon.
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