At dawn on Solstice morning, thousands of visitors gather at Stonehenge, cramming themselves between the monoliths to see the midsummer sunrise through the Heel Stone. But with crowds also come traffic, noise and drunken revellers (or sober stick-in-the-muds, depending on your perspective) – in other words, that most annoying thing in the world: other people, and lots of them.
Fortunately, there are many curious and mystical alternatives in the UK, a world away from the mass gathering of weekend pagans, punks and partygoers. So, if you fancy something a bit more low-key or out of the ordinary, try these suggestions from The Weird Guide to Britain.
The Druids Temple, Masham, North Yorkshire
In Georgian times, it would have taken a good couple of days to travel by stagecoach from Yorkshire to Stonehenge to see the Solstice sunrise. So, in the late 1700s, William Danby, ever the enterprising individual, decided that rather than travel all that way, he would build his own stone circle, complete with triliths (rock goalposts) and a druidic altar.
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