Illumination wanes quickly as I stand within the Tregeseal stone circle. The granite stones appear luminous in this melancholy landscape, resembling ethereal watchers assembled around to see our activities. Overhead, a expanse of dried heathland plants ascends toward Carn Kenidjack, the imposing granite tor that commands the open horizon. During the evening, this moor is believed to be haunted by supernatural beings, and on occasion Old Nick ventures forth in search of lost souls.
Unafraid by any supernatural threat, we gaze westward, in the direction of the distant forms on the horizon that are the far-off Isles of Scilly. The clouds break and a wave of sunlight falls over the islands. My companion, researcher Carolyn Kennett, and I marvel. It is marvellous a spectacle of nature which may have been witnessed by the people who built this circle millennia ago.
A Timeless Solstice Terrain
We have met at Tregeseal to explore the year's turning point. Carolyn’s work investigates the connection of the region's ancient past with the heavens, and she describes the entire Land’s End peninsula as an age-old midwinter ceremonial ground. This, she explains, is because of the ridge of igneous rock that runs in a southwesterly direction along the peninsula, toward the solstice sunset. If, for example, you are located at winter solstice by Chûn Quoit – the mushroom-shaped tomb high on the moors south of Morvah – you will see the sun descend over the rocky hill on the western horizon. And probably this is precisely as its Stone Age constructors intended.
"Is there a more fitting location to mark the rebirth of the light than on the western tip, which aims toward the vanishing spot of the sun on the day of least light?"
It is proposed that Tregeseal stone circle was deliberately sited to allow people to observe the midwinter sun going down behind the Isles of Scilly. “Viewed from here, Scilly is a liminal space. On a sunny day with fair conditions, the isles look nearby and just appear vividly. On other days, they’re simply not there. The circle builders could have viewed Scilly as an realm of spirits, possibly a place of the dead, linked to the winter solstice and the return of the light.”
Ancient Rows and Solar Calendars
We weave through the darkening copper-colored moor past Bronze Age barrows and mounds of mining slag to a enigmatic structure, which may be the UK’s only prehistoric alignment of holed stones. In contrast to the stone at the famous holed stone a few miles away, it’s impossible to squeeze through the stones at Kenidjack; these holes are scarcely big enough to pass my hand through and very low to the ground. Archaeologists remain puzzled.
One hypothesis is that the series might have worked as a kind of solar event marker, with the sun at dawn shining through the holes from autumn until December and creating different beams of light in the stones’ shadows. “Experiencing the glow of that sunbeam of sunlight in the cold, dark moor gave me a tangible experience of how prehistoric people might have perceived winter solstice,” she says.
Numerous heritage locations are positioned to the dawn or dusk of the sun at midwinter or midsummer for it to be a coincidence. It makes sense that prehistoric farmers, who depended on the sun for light, warmth and the success of crops, would want to follow the sun’s journey. But in the modern era, the darkness of this time of year still weighs on our moods, and so we look forward to the shortest day, that darkest day of all before the daylight hours begin to increase again.
Enduring Monoliths and Contemporary Celebrations
A cutting breeze is blowing, and eerie moaning come from invisible cows as I walk through damp clover to pay a visit the solitary monolith, standing guard as it has done for millennia above the peninsula’s south coast. It is just one of dozens of prehistoric stones that stand alone or in pairs or circles all over the peninsula; less than a mile away are the famous stone circle, dancers transformed into rock for violating the Sabbath. I think about how through the centuries the stone has remained here, witnessing its view of the Celtic Sea and English Channel: where once Neolithic coracles would have sailed, now container ships and the island boat sail past.
"This midwinter event brings back the historic practice of masked dancing, with its intricate disguises, seasonal songs and music of woodwind, percussion and strings."
One artist's mesmerising film, that follows a full year in the presence of this stone, highlights the impact of its still and silent presence in the ever-changing landscape. “And I intentionally opened and closed the film with winter solstice,” he says, “because it is a point of pure hope – the pledge of the passing of darkness and a promising new year ahead.”
On the shortest day, all over this region, people will be marking the solstice by walking to ancient rings, water sources, Iron Age sites and ancient beacons. Excursions will be conducted to observe the sinking sun. Many will make their way to standing stones in a kind of ceremony of introspection and new beginnings. Later, many people will flock into Penzance for Montol, a winter celebration that {dates only to|was established in|originated in
