Solstice events are much improved since English Heritage banned alcohol and imposed a parking charge, thereby reducing misbehaviour and overcrowding. But there’s still room for improvement. For one thing, thousands who are purely revellers use the “don’t pay to pray” mantra to oppose paying an economic price for the event. Consequently many tens of thousands extra pounds are spent on the event that could be better used elsewhere to protect heritage.
For another thing, English Heritage are still utterly pathetic at stopping hundreds of people standing on the stones, thereby broadcasting a message of disrespect. (Three stewards/security guards in high viz jackets and helmets – and heavy boots no doubt – were shown this morning on BBC 1, standing side by side on a stone! EH stewardship, eh? Next they’ll be supporting the wrecking of the landscape with a short tunnel!)
In addition, the gathering takes place at the wrong time and the wrong place. The monument was designed to view the winter solstice sunset from outside the stones not the winter solstice sunrise from inside them. Doing it wrong is no big deal but doing it wrong at great expense when heritage needs aren’t met elsewhere is hard to justify.
You can do it right if you wish (here’s a tour you can book) or if you prefer you could celebrate the event perfectly validly in your local town. In Birmingham for instance there are dozens of roads clearly aligned on the winter solstice sunset! We recommend City Road, Edgbaston. It runs dead straight for a mile pointing to the winter solstice setting sun. Magnificent! All proper pagans ought to be gathering there!
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The Heritage Journal 
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21/12/2016 at 13:14
Frank Millar
I really don’t understand why EH allow these solstice celebrations to continue. We visited Stonehenge this summer, paid nearly £16 to get in, and weren’t allowed anywhere near the stones but it seems every Solstice you can turn up and do what you want. Why can’t they keep the revellers outside the inner circle like paying visitors have to? Different rules for different people?
21/12/2016 at 13:31
jacklong
I agree. There’s no sense in it.
23/12/2016 at 07:28
solsticepilgrim
Hi there, we’ve been here before with these comments about the winter solstice. The sunset falls within the current opening times (well towards the end of the day – last admission at 3pm with the VC closing at 5pm) so any new period of managed open access would involve a new set of arrangements which EH would have to pay for. Lighting columns, parking and loss of income etc. Plus many would then want to stay the night and see the dawn anyway. From EH’s point of view the current dawn gathering involves ‘getting them in and getting them out’ whist it is starting to get light. To be fair to EH, the 2016 arrangement marked a big change with them posting a full set of terms and conditions of entry on their website. A few years ago they didn’t post anything. Charging for parking would have generated EH some income towards the set-up and the overnight parking on the droves is no longer allowed from what I can ascertain.
On a slightly different note the NT Midwinter Archaeology Walk is most welcome and finishes around the time of the sunset on the walk back to the Tombs Road car park, but as the weather is often cloudy there isn’t actually much to see anyway. It is also worth stating that the Amesbury lantern parade (which only ran from Stonehenge for a couple of years) changed out into a more localised event based around Amesbury town and abbey grounds due to organisational reasons like the unpredictability of the weather, parking and so on.
What is needed at the winter solstice is a thermograph imaging camera situated somewhere back down on the avenue which would stream live online images of the sun setting between the stones whatever the weather. As for the dawn gathering EH could install a ‘ceremonial gate / with security controls’ in the old A344 northern stock boundary fence so that people could spread out down on the avenue and be able to walk up to the stones as originally intended – rather than all crowd in the centre of the circle.
23/12/2016 at 07:43
heritageaction
“people could spread out down on the avenue and be able to walk up to the stones as originally intended – rather than all crowd in the centre of the circle” …..
Absolutely beats me why they don’t do something like that. It would be win-win for everyone.
23/12/2016 at 17:46
solsticepilgrim
‘Absolutely beats me why they don’t do something like that. It would be win-win for everyone’
Well it depends who you talk to. The establishment of the newly grass seeded A344 seems to be taking longer than expected and the opening up of the ‘permissive route’ along the line of the old road has developed into a saga of its own. Please see Tim Daw’s website sarsen.org for more details. On a practical note EH seem to have made a bit of a blunder in covering over the surface of the A344, as there is a land drop of about 30cm / 12inches between that and the upper end of the Avenue. The A344’s old northern stock boundary fence remains in place for the time being. However, a gate could be installed in the fence without too much trouble,. This would allow direct access to the Heel Stone from the Avenue. I even emailed Kate Davies (EH Stonehenge Manager) to ask her direct about this and the thermographic camera and her reply was reasonably positive. There needs to be a constant dialogue and investment made into developing managed open access for all concerned. Spreading people back down the avenue and creating a new entry / gathering point along with online streaming of the sunset would certainly help.