Stonehenge to have bank holiday falconry displays

Public displays of historic hawking and falconry are returning to Stonehenge.

Bank holiday weekend will see Stonehenge host it's first event since lockdown.

"We are delighted to bring back falconry to Stonehenge," said Jenny Davies, from English Heritage.

The event will, "recreate yet another element of Stonehenge's fascinating and eclectic recent history."

What is Falconry?

Falcons eat small mammals like rabbits, and there are records of them occasionally eating amphibians, lizards and large insects.

Falconry is a sport, but it's not just any sport, it's a very, very old sport. There's evidence of it being done in 1700 BC!

It involves using trained birds of prey to hunt or gather something for a human.

The birds usually fly off to retrieve their prey and bring it back to the bird handler.

There are 25,000 falconers in the UK and people have been training birds of prey here for nearly 2,000 years.

Stonehenge has been holding falconry events since the Victorian times.

Coronavirus has meant that many events held at Stonehenge and around it had to be cancelled.

There are 1,400 pairs of Peregrine Falcon in the UK this one pictured is a Peregrine Falcon

"We haven't been able to host our usual programme across the country due to coronavirus restrictions," explained English Heritage spokesperson Jenny Davies.

"Falconry lends itself really well to social distancing, as the whole sky is the stage."

Over the bank holiday weekend the displays will be over the Salisbury Plain surrounding Stonehenge, just as they would have been in Victorian England.