Celebrate the Winter Solstice at Stonehenge

“I chose to go to the Winter Solstice two weeks ago instead as apparently far fewer people attend (not many party goers want to head out in winter), and found it incredibly moving. We stayed in Salisbury the night before and took the solstice bus that is laid on especially (which was a bit hectic but got us there - the free car parking permits had all been booked). The bus dropoff point (and car park) is about 1.3 miles from the stones, and we started walking in the pitch black. This, however, turned out to be a wonderful experience as the emerging morning twilight illuminated the mist-wreathed trees and fields, giving us glimpses of a red dawn as the clouds drifted in and out. It was really quite a beautiful, calming preparation for the sunrise. We arrived with about 20 minutes to sun up, and while we did not have clear skies, the mists delivered (what to me was) an ethereal moment as dawn burst through. The vibe around the stones was peaceful and joyful. People were strolling, picnicking, singing, drumming, or just sitting and soaking up the atmosphere.”

“We woke up at 5, and got on the road from Bristol by 6, and were at the monument by 7:30. At first I had heard that there wasn’t going to be parking available, so we had pulled up to park on the highway, but were waved off by the police. They let us park in the parking lot anyway, and were actually pretty pleasant, for being up on a very cold and snowy morning in England, right before Christmas! We walked up to the stones and it seemed that there were mostly onlookers there, not as many druids. [...] It was very laid back, and everyone was friendly and happy. There was some kind of small ceremony in the middle and a war veteran who just arrived from Iraq was knighted. Then the crowd started to disperse, and people seemed content to just touch the stones, take photos, and chat. The sunrise after the longest night was somewhat of a non-event–you couldn’t seen a thing in the hazy white English pre-dawn. A bit after the druids started clearing out a snowball fight erupted in the middle of the stones, with people ducking behind them and firing away!”