People, including druids and pagans, come from across world to watch sunrise on shortest day of the year
Thousands of revellers gathered at Stonehenge in the early hours of Sunday morning to celebrate the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.
Crowds amassed in the dark around the historical site in Wiltshire to watch the sunrise, with some dressed in traditional pagan clothing, just as they did to mark the sun rising on the summer solstice six months ago.
During the winter solstice, which happens typically on 20, 21 or 22 December each year, the sun is at its lowest arc in the sky all year, and can be seen through the south-eastern arches of Stonehenge, the great trilithon, with other parts of the structure also aligned to meet the sunrise.
The exact length of the day during the solstice depends on how far north or south you are, with the majority of Britain getting about seven hours of sunlight, the people of Land’s End, Cornwall, getting just more than eight hours, and the people of Shetland, Scotland, only getting about five and a half hours.
