Why West Cornwall Serves as the Ideal Place to Celebrate the Winter Solstice

The light fades swiftly as I position myself within the ancient ring of stones at Tregeseal. The ancient pillars glow in this sombre landscape, resembling ethereal watchers collected around to observe our presence. Rising before us, a sea of dried bracken and gorse rises toward the rocky hill of Carn Kenidjack, the imposing rock outcrop that dominates the open horizon. During the evening, this heath is reputed to be frequented by pixies and demons, and sometimes a dark rider emerges seeking the departed.

Unafraid by any otherworldly danger, we peer seawards, toward the hazy shapes on the horizon that are the distant Isles of Scilly. The clouds crack open and a flood of golden light falls over the islands. My guide, archaeoastronomer Carolyn Kennett, and I marvel. It is breathtaking a spectacle of nature which may have been enjoyed by the community who built this circle 4,000 years ago.

A Prehistoric Midwinter Vista

We have gathered at Tregeseal to talk about the winter solstice. Carolyn’s work examines the relationship of the region's ancient past with the sky, and she characterizes the entire Land’s End peninsula as an prehistoric solstice-aligned terrain. This, she explains, is because of the backbone of granite that extends in a southwesterly direction along the peninsula, toward the midwinter sunset. If, for example, you are located at the solstice by the mushroom-shaped quoit – the capstoned burial chamber high on the moors south of Morvah – you will see the sun sink over the rocky hill on the southwestern horizon. And probably this is exactly as Chûn Quoit’s Stone Age constructors envisioned.

"Is there a more fitting location to celebrate the rebirth of the daylight than on the Penwith peninsula, which points in the direction of the sinking location of the sun on the day of least light?"

It is proposed that the stone ring was carefully positioned to allow people to view the midwinter sun going down behind the Isles of Scilly. “Viewed from here, Scilly is a threshold place. On a bright day with fair conditions, the isles look nearby and just seem to leap out. On different days, they’re entirely absent. The ancient people could have viewed Scilly as an realm of spirits, possibly a spiritual domain, linked to the darkest day and the return of the light.”

Ancient Rows and Solar Calendars

We thread through the darkening brown moor past prehistoric burial mounds and mounds of mining slag to a enigmatic structure, which may be the UK’s only Neolithic line of perforated rocks. Different from the stone at the famous holed stone a few miles away, it’s impossible to pass through the stones at Kenidjack; these apertures are only just big enough to pass my hand through and extremely close to the ground. Experts remain perplexed.

One hypothesis is that the alignment might have functioned as a kind of solar event marker, with the morning sun shining through the holes from late October until December and creating different shafts of light in the stones’ shadows. “Experiencing the glow of that golden beam of sunlight in the chilly, gloomy moor gave me a visceral experience of how prehistoric people might have perceived midwinter,” she says.

Numerous prehistoric monuments are oriented to the dawn or dusk of the sun at the year's extremes for it to be a coincidence. It stands to reason that prehistoric farmers, who depended on the sun for light, warmth and the success of crops, would want to track the sun’s path. But in the modern era, the gloom of this time of year still affects our spirits, and so we anticipate the shortest day, that most shadowy day of all before the sunlit time begin to grow again.

Enduring Monoliths and Contemporary Celebrations

A chilly breeze is gusting, and strange moaning come from unseen cows as I tramp through wet clover to pay a visit the Boscawen-Ros stone, watching over as it has done for thousands of years above the peninsula’s south coast. It is just one of scores of ancient monoliths that stand in isolation or in pairs or circles all over the peninsula; less than a mile away are the famous stone circle, maidens frozen in granite for disobeying the Sabbath. I think about how long the stone has persisted here, taking in its vista of the coastal waters: where once Neolithic coracles would have drifted, now container ships and the island boat travel through.

"Montol brings back the old Cornish custom of masked dancing, with its detailed outfits, traditional carolling and music of pipe, drum and fiddle."

One artist's hypnotic film, that follows 12 months in the presence of this stone, draws attention to the power of its still and silent presence in the dynamic landscape. “And I purposely started and ended the film with winter solstice,” he tells me, “because it is a moment of pure hope – the assurance of the conclusion of the dark and a promising new year ahead.”

On 21 December, all over this region, people will be celebrating the turning of the year by hiking to monuments, sacred springs, ancient fortifications and ancient beacons. Excursions will be organized to observe the sinking sun. Many will make their way to ancient stones in a form of practice of contemplation and rebirth. Later, many people will congregate into the harbour town for the Montol festival, a midwinter festival that {dates only to|was established in|originated in