After the very successful Summer Solstice walk in June, it is obvious to look at "can we do The Double for the Winter Solstice"? Well...
Stonehenge is open and free to visit for the sunrise on Solstice Day, opening at 05.15 and closing again at 10.00 (for cleanup before re-opening later for the paid-for crowds). Sunrise is at 08.09. See more information here: https://production.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/solstice/Winter-Solstice-2025/
So, if we'd take the last train out from Waterloo to Salisbury (23.39-01.11) and assume a slower walking pace than in the summer (wetter and muddier ground, colder temperatures and probably less moonlight due to cloud cover), we'd arrive in the 06.30 to 07.00 window, about 90 minutes before sunrise, same as we did in the summer (we took 5 hours then if we deduct the time at the pub in Salisbury).
If anyone is interested in a group walk along those lines, please contact me or post a comment below and if there is a critical mass of people interested, I will post the walk (and be on it).
Note: the elegant solution would be to start from Amesbury and walk the route in reverse, but there is of course no train/bus combination early enough on Sundays to do this.
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The winter solstice in astronomical terms occurs at 15.03 GMT on 21 Dec this year. Get wise about the solstices here: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/space-astronomy/summer-winter-solstices-explained-how-sun-determines-longest-shortest-days and about the timing of the winter solstice here: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/time/when-winter-solstice-shortest-day. The sunrise out there on the day will be at 08.08 GMT.
Entrance is free to the area by the Stones (“the Monument Field”) from 05.15 hours. Presumably fewer people will be there than in June, but a lot of those people arrive the evening before with their flasks and blankets, or even days before with their tents and campervans and they will already be hogging the central area when we arrive, including self-declared druids, assorted hippies and other spiritual people, tourists from nearby and afar etc. But with some astute shuffling about we will get right close to the Stones and then into the centre circle and – maybe – even see the sun rise over the Stones.
In past years, the following rule regarding bags has been applied by English Heritage “Only small bags (approx. 30cm x 25cm x 15cm) will be allowed into the Monument Field and searches will be conducted.” Anyone still wanting to get into the ‘Monument Field’ therefore will need another SWC walker to guard their backpack. For all the dos and don’ts (no glass, pets, flames, drones, blades…) read more detail here: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/solstice/what-and-what-not-to-bring/. Although as we found in June, the checks can be cursory at best.
Arriving at the Stones too early can be dealt with by walking the Cursus Barrow Cemetery and Western Cursus extension, which is worth half an hour of walking (or just by ogling at all the other people and soaking in the atmosphere).
A Special Bus Service (Line 333) is run by Salisbury Reds between Stonehenge Car Park and Salisbury Station. Tickets can be pre-booked on the app. The 2025 timetable is available via a link from here .
As for the Walk
Stonehenge is 20.2 km into the full walk route, with the very most of the 288m total ascent done by then, so at daytime this would be worth 4 ½ hours of walking at most for the average SWC walker. Most of the route follows tarmac paths, roads, solid farm tracks or wide grassy tracks, so I don’t think the pace will be much slower at night than during the day (there are a couple of semi-tricky descents, one from Old Sarum, the other through a wood along a narrow path, but the latter can be avoided by following a road from Salterton Farm). But to be on the safe side, let’s add a cushion for slowness, food breaks and stuff going wrong (but how could it, we’re the SWC?), then this gets us to – say - 5 ½ hours from the station to Stonehenge.
The Morning Shortcut (starts 8.2 km into the walk) cuts 2.2 km of walking and may be useful if the pace is slower than assumed above, or more generally for slower walkers.
From Stonehenge, it is another 5.8 km to Amesbury and there is of course also another extension en route that can be walked.
The Walk Post
This walk mostly follows the Avon Valley upstream from the quintessentially English Cathedral City of Salisbury with its many historic buildings, to Amesbury which claims to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settled around 8820 BCE. En route you rise out of the valley to the site of Salisbury’s earlier incarnation: Old Sarum, with its impressive hilltop location, banks and ditches, ruined remains of an earlier cathedral and supreme views across the Avon Valley and to the modern town.
A meandering route (to the lunch pubs) then crosses and recrosses
the Avon while passing through several twee villages, dominated by mills,
thatched walls and cottages and several impressive grand homes.
You then bear away from the Avon Valley to enter the very evocative Stonehenge World Heritage Site with its numerous pre-historic monuments: barrow cemeteries, large linear or non-linear earthworks and wooden and stone henges. All but two of the fifteen most prominent monuments in the Stonehenge area, as well as many more minor sites, are either passed on, or can at least be spotted from, the main walk or the various extensions and shortcuts.
Breakfast in Amesbury: A handful of pubs in town, probably some cafés as well. The George Hotel and The Bell (Wetherspoon’s, open from 08.00) appear to be the best bets for (solid) food amongst the pubs.
Breakfast in Salisbury: Plenty of cafés and pubs in Salisbury at the central square on Blue Boar Row and on Station Road. See the webpage or the pdf for details.
For walk directions , a map, a height profile, photos, gpx/kml files, and photos click here.
10 comments:
I’m interested in this walk. It would be good to see how the change of season changes this walk.
I am interested in this walk.
Just fyi, it is a new moon so there will be no moonlight.
So, then: decision time. Unsurprisingly, not much interest shown, either here in a comment or via direct messaging. The ground will be slippery (although most certainly not treacherously muddy), there will be little or no light from above, and it will be colder than in June (as low as 5°).
But...
I'm with HL, let's go check it out, do the Solstice double. The weather and ground conditions may never be better in the following years anyway. Bring head torches (and spare batteries), extra layers (it will feel cold once we stop walking and stand around, at the Stones), and maybe a flask with a hot drink (how uncool, but needs must).
See you on the train or in a pub at Waterloo beforehand...
To anyone concerned about group cohesion and being left (behind) in the dark: the revised SWC rules apply same as on Scotland trips and somesuch - we leave no one behind, we stay together come what may.
To anyone mulling, dithering or doubting whether to go or not: 21 December falls on weekdays for the next few years. It is therefore unlikely that there will be a group walk like this for quite some time.
Have fun - won’t be joining I’m afraid. Perhaps the spring equinox next? :)
If you were tucked up in bed, then you might like to check out the BBC's coverage at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4g4exnj2p5t
Much the same, but also much different, as compared to 20/21 June.
We started 3 hrs 20 later, did not stop for a drink (too late for it), nobody fell (the candidate wasn't with us today), there were no merch stall or food stalls and much fewer people.
We did have a starry night though until 3.30 when a little spray started, from 4 them it turned to drizzle, but that fizzled out 45 minutes later. Then we had light cloud cover. We saw a couple of bats and a rat, heard owls and caused chaos in a waterlogged meadow amongst the angsty ducks and geese (not used to night walkers, clearly).
We got to the Stones at 6.20, i.e. almost 2 hours before sunrise and long before most people. That meant we could get really close to the mostly white-robed percussionists and chanters in the middle. After a while (fingers and toes getting cold by now), we ventured out of the circle to check out the people outside it. There was the White Horse Morris, throwing some shapes. The red-robed and dressed 'druids' had convened at the Heel Stone and did their conducted singing there. Other seemingly spontaneous groups of percussionists and singers were spread around the place. Plus all kinds of artists, weed smokers, incense burners and other folk (1 even barefoot).
Thick mist covered the valleys around (a cloud inversion of sorts, surely?) and in the SE the sky turned red. At sunrise there was no sun though, as a band of cloud in that part of the sky hid it. Off we went: 9.27 bus, 10.27 train. Breakfast as we speak (courtesy of Gail's).
5 SWC-ees, 2 of which got approached on the train by a young woman from Brighton that wanted to join the walk and did (she has family in Devon and was picked up at the Stones for her Xmas visit). N=6 w=dry-when-it-mattered
Addendum: all 5 SWC-ees had also been on the Summer Solstice walk
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