Alternative therapies are all the rage right now. Popping pills and surgical procedures are out, holistic healing and non-intrusive remedies are in.

But will people with aches and pains take it one step further and start flocking to Stonehenge after research from an internationally renowned academic revealed the ancient site was a centre for healing?

Professor Timothy Darvill, head of the archaeology group at Bournemouth University, has breathed new life into the controversy surrounding the origins of Stonehenge by publishing a theory suggesting the prehistoric monument was a source for healing.

So what evidence is there to support his theory that Stonehenge was the equivalent of the modern-day Lourdes?

The basis for Prof Darvill's findings lies in the Preseli Mountains in west Wales, where he and his colleague Professor Geoffrey Wainwright have located an exact origin for the bluestones used in the construction of Stonehenge some 250km away.

Inspired by Arthurian legends dating back to the 13th century, in particular those written by historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, the pair discovered numerous springs around the edges of the Preseli area, widely regarded by local people and Welsh folklore as having healing properties.

"The water comes out of the rocks used to build Stonehenge and it's well established that as recently as the late 18th century, people went to Stonehenge to break off bits of rock as talismans."

Prof Darvill's new book on the subject and one of the most detailed studies of the area, Stonehenge: The Biography of a Landscape, also advocates that revellers who travel to be near the ancient monument for the summer solstice in June should reconsider. He believes that the monument's powers are most potent in December during the winter solstice when our ancestors believed the henge was occupied by a prehistoric god, the equivalent of the Roman and Greek god of healing, Apollo.

"Although Apollo's main sanctuary was at Delphi in Greece, it is widely believed that he left Greece in the winter months to reside in the land of the Hyborians - usually taken to be Britain."

Timothy also speculates that the largest and grandest of the trilithon (the structures consisting of two large vertical stones supporting a third stone set horizontally across the top) represents the divine twins Apollo (god of sun) and Artemis (god of moon).

"The site is aligned very carefully with two key midsummer suns and one is the setting midwinter sun. When you walk into Stonehenge through the original entrance what you see on the horizon in front of you is the position where the sun sets in winter.

"If you stand inside the circle and turn your back to that, you see where the sun rises on midsummer's day.

"The Apollo/Artemis trilithon is positioned astride this solistical line overlooking the whole of this temple of healing stones."

He also suggests that the outer ring of stones was a crude calendar to enable our ancestors to calculate when Apollo would be in residence.

"At first sight it looks like there are 30 outer stones but if you look closely there are only 29 and two thirds.

"One is not a complete stone - it's shorter than all the rest, thinner and narrower."

If each of these stones represented a day in the lunar month (typically 29 and two-third days long) this would generate a perfectly workable, but primitive time calculator.

"So in this one monument you've got a calendar telling you when you should be there, the solistical alignments embedded in the structure of the monument, representations of the key deities which look after you and the bluestones which give the power of the place."

Interesting concepts but Prof Darvill himself admits the riddle is far from solved.

"The next move is further work in Preseli - where the secret lies."

Sounds like he's going to be a busy man.

He does, however, manage to fit in being lead guitarist in the departmental rock 'n' roll band in between excavations and surveys. A rock star on the side, eh? A very apt leisure activity for an archaeology academic.