CLIMATE change is threatening heritage sites worldwide with worries that Stonehenge and Avebury will be at risk of intense rainfall and flooding.

A study carried out by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), UN heritage body UNESCO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) showed there is an urgent and clear need to limit temperature rises to protect the key heritage sites.

Adam Markham, lead author of the report and deputy director of the climate and energy programme at UCS, said: “The report is representative of the kind of threats these iconic places are experiencing, some are in direct and immediate danger.

"At every one of these sites we can see the impacts of climate change already. Not in every place is it threatening it yet but it will threaten it in the future."

With warmer winters the likeliness of an increase in burrowing animals at Stonehenge could mean the stonework being destabilised and the archaeological deposits being disturbed.

Hotter and drier summers could also increase the visitor numbers and change the plant species which stabilise the chalk downlands, causing more soil erosion while Stonehenge and Avebury face increased rainfall and flash floods.

Mr Markham added: "Orkney and the whole of Scotland is the poster child for eroding archaeology sites. There are thousands of them and many of them are being lost to coastal erosion and storms.

“If sea levels rise and storms get worse because of global warming then we are going to be losing huge amounts of British heritage directly into the sea.”

The report looked at 31 natural and cultural World Heritage sites in 29 countries that are vulnerable to increasing temperatures, melting glaciers, rising seas, more intense weather, worsening droughts and longer wildfire seasons.

Mechtild Rossler, director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, said: “Globally, we need to better understand, monitor and address climate change threats to World Heritage sites.

“As the report’s findings underscore, achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature to a level well below 2C is vitally important to protecting our world heritage for current and future generations.”