Stonehenge, one of England's most famous landmarks, is to have a £57m cash injection to improve visitor facilities and improve access.

The funding package, announced on 31 July, includes a commitment of £26m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, at least £10m from the government and £11.7m from English Heritage. A major fund raising appeal will launched by English Heritage later this year to raise the balance.

The national Trust will also be arranging funding for improvements to the landscape.

Sir Neil Cossons, chair of English Heritage, said: 'English Heritage has battled for more than 16 years to provide visitors to Stonehenge with the setting, access, understanding and enjoyment that is expected at such an internationally important pre-historic site.

'Stonehenge is the site on which the nation's heritage-led tourist industry is judged. Although 830,000 people visit it a year, they spend just half an hour at the stone circle on average. They deserve better than this.'

The new 'gateway' to Stonehenge will be a visitor reception building at Countess East which is outside of the World Heritage Site and out of sight of the stones. Architect Denton Corker Marshall has designed the building to blend into the landscape. From Countess Road the building will seem subterranean while from above it will resemble lines on the ground. The roof will be planted with narrow bands of grass with the tops of burnished, pewter-toned metal walls visible on either side. Inside, a range of interpretive exhibitions will tell the story of Stonehenge.

From the reception building, visitors will be able to either walk, hire bicycles, or take 'low impact, environmentally friendly' shuttle buses to points within walking distance of the stones.

The Highways Agency is also progressing plans to remove traffic from the Stonehenge landscape by closing the A344 and placing 2km of the A303 in a tunnel.

The cost of the visitor reception, exhibitions, audio-visual presentations, cap parking an landscaping at Countess East will cost in the region of £35m. The transport system around the site will cost around £7m.

A planning application will be submitted to Salisbury District Council later this year by English Heritage and if permission is received, the visitor centre is due to open by 2006. Details: www.english-heritage.org.uk