I was lucky enough to be at Stonehenge Winter Solstice this morning.
I got the bus from where I live in Salisbury to Amesbury, crossed the A303 at the Countess roundabout then walked across country to Stonehenge. The route is roughed out in the previous winter solstice post.
This is the first picture I took where you can make anything out. I think I was walking up the Avenue to the Stonehenge. I came out directly opposite the Heel Stone.
This photo was taken just as I came out of the tunnel:
Because it’s Winter Solstice I could walk in and amongst the stones themselves.
Still waiting for the sun to come up….
You can just about make out the sun rising between two uprights:
In this pic, the sun has risen. Something that was slightly different about this solstice at Stonehenge was that as soon as the sun had come up you couldn’t look at it. Last year you could watch the sunrise quite comfortably for some time.
I hadn’t really noticed this at previous solstices. The shadow of one trilithon on another – a trilithon is the two uprights and a lintel arrangement that you think of when you think of Stonehenge.
This is one of the smaller Stonehenge ‘bluestones’. The right hand side in the photo is facing the rising midwinter sun
This is someone dressed in what I would think of as a medieval procession outfit. Numerous towns and cities included somebody dressed like this. Salisbury’s equivalent would be ‘Hob-nob’ who accompanied the Salisbury Giant around the streets in processions.
Anyway, this chap was very impressive. he was playing the accordion and dancing. And he had fairy lights!
I thought this was worth a photo, the people here are in a queue as if at a bus top. They are in the line where you can get a picture of the sun coming up between two of the south west facing sarsens.
