Stonehenge bones exhibit druid's legal bid

In May, King Arthur Pendragon lost a separate legal bid to have bones, found in 2008, reburied

A public body has been served legal papers by a druid who wants to prevent it putting human remains on display at Stonehenge.

King Arthur Pendragon has criticised English Heritage for the "macabre manner" it plans to display "ancestral remains" at a new visitor centre.

English Heritage said: "Museum visitors are comfortable with, and often expect to see, human remains."

In May, he lost a separate legal bid to have bones, found in 2008, reburied.

Mr Pendragon wants fake, rather than real, human remains to be used and is seeking a court and interim order to prevent English Heritage from putting the bones on display.

The £27m scheme to build a new visitor centre and close the road alongside the ancient monument is due to be completed by the end of the year.

Mr Pendragon said: "Proceedings are sought in the Royal Courts of Justice to prohibit the exhibition of skeleton and cremated human remains taken from the environs of Stonehenge by English Heritage in their new visitors centre, due to open later this year."

Royal line

In a previous statement, English Heritage said: "The remains of three human burials found in the landscape will be displayed with ample explanation along with archaeological objects, providing visitors with a direct connection to the people who lived and worked there."

In an earlier legal bid, Mr Pendragon claimed the cremated remains of more than 40 bodies, thought to be at least 5,000 years old and which were removed from a burial site at Stonehenge in 2008, were the remains of members of the royal line and he wanted them re-interred.

He lost a High Court bid to have those bones reburied in 2011 and permission to take the case to a full judicial review was refused in May.

English Heritage said the remains it plans to display are not from the 2008 excavation and their "presentation, treatment and storage" would follow strict UK guidelines.