Ready for tech off
HEATHROW is set to trial a host of cutting-edge new tech in a bid to get the airport back on track.
Ideas being considered include facial recognition thermal-screening to track body temperatures, UV sanitation to clean security trays and contactfree screening equipment.
Thermal-screening trials are due to begin at Terminal 2 within the next couple of weeks.
SUMMER solstice celebrations may have been cancelled but the mighty rocks will still be waiting for us when all this is over. The longest day is just a month away and you can watch the sunrise at Stonehenge live online while you plan your next hippy trip.
Big beasts Stonehenge/avebury, Wiltshire
The most impressive of our stone circles, Stonehenge is made of 20-ton slabs that were somehow transported from the Preseli Hills in Wales back in 2500BC.
The attraction got so popular, barriers were put up to keep visitors back.
It’s better to head for Avebury, 25 miles north, where you can walk up to the stones and see if you can hear them whispering. This is the largest stone circle in Britain and entry is free. WHAT ELSE: Handsome Avebury village, with its Georgian and Tudor thatched houses, is at the centre of all kinds of spirituality.
Among the prehistoric barrows, seek out manmade Silbury Hill, right by the A4.
The White Horse Trail, connecting eight enormous chalk horses cut into hillsides, also runs through the village.
WHEN THE WORLD REOPENS: Stay at Willowbank Lodges, by the River Avon in
Pewsey. It costs from £183 for two nights in a one-bed cabin. See willowbanklodges.com.
Twin sets Callanish, Outer Hebrides
As a monument to mystic power, the remote Standing Stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis are second only to Stonehenge. But here you can walk among these beauties and even touch them without paying an entrance fee.
Nobody knows why this 5,000-year-old cross-shaped arrangement is here. A second set of stones a short walk away, Callanish II, looks like a circle of elders frozen in round-shouldered conversation. WHAT ELSE: Lewis is the northernmost of the Western Isles. It and adjoining ‘island’ Harris are the same land mass, divided by a mountain range. The original islanders found it easier to travel between the communities by boat, which is why they have kept separate identities. WHEN THE WORLD REOPENS: But there has been a road between Lewis and Harris for a good while now. So why not treat yourself to a stay in the Harris Hotel in the ferry port of Tarbert, which has doubles with breakfast from £120. See harrishotel.com.
Neck hairs Brodgar and Stenness, Orkney
If you want to see prehistoric stones that will make the hair on your neck stand up, travel up to Orkney.
The Ring of Brodgar, the Standing Stones of Stenness, Skara Brae and Maeshowe are all practically within shouting distance of each other, in a raw setting of sea and land.
The Ring has 60 stones, 27 of which are still standing, while Stenness has only four of the original 12 and are thought to relate to the Norse gods.
Skara Brae is an excavated Neolithic settlement and Maeshowe a tomb with an entrance that is so craftily engineered that a shaft of sunlight from the winter solstice falls exactly on the tomb deep inside.
WHAT ELSE: The stones are within easy striking distance of fishing and ferry port Stromness, at the entrance to Scapa Flow.
The island of Hoy is a short ferry hop away and its Old Man is one of the most distinctive rock stacks in the British Isles. WHEN THE WORLD REOPENS: Stay in Orkney’s Ferry Inn, by the harbourside. Doubles cost from £110. See ferryinn.com.
Big girls Long Meg and her daughters, Cumbria
This stone circle sits in a field between Carlisle and Penrith. Long Meg is the tallest of 69 stones but stands outside the circle of her daughters, and is exactly placed to line up with where the sun goes down in the winter solstice. Legend