Six solstice alternatives to Stonehenge, by the author of a guide to weird Britain

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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At the time, the country was in the grips of a recession, and the folly stone circle was conceived as a way of providing employment for out-of-work locals. Danby was seen as a great philanthropist, but given that he gave his workmen the equivalent of £3 a day in today’s money, we might use an different word to describe him.

Today, it’s part of the Swinton Estate near Masham in the Nidderdale National Landscape. swintonestate.com/activities/druids-temple

Light Pyramid, Milton Keynes

The Light Pyramid in Milton Keynes welcomes the midsummer sun during the solstice (Photo: Planet One Images/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty)

Milton Keynes might conjure images of shopping centres, concrete cows and a dizzying number of roundabouts. What you might not consider is that its main street is cosmically aligned with the rising summer Solstice sun.

When town planners drew up the grid system for the new town (as the story has it, under a cloud of marijuana smoke), they realised that by just tilting its placement by a few degrees, the sun would rise in precise alignment with the main street, which they dubbed Midsummer Boulevard, along with neighbouring Avebury Boulevard and Silbury Boulevard.

Although the shopping centre, built a little after the town, ruined this alignment, the white-painted steel sculpture, Light Pyramid, behind it still welcomes the midsummer sun.

Yr Eifl, Llŷn  Peninsula

Trefor Quarry lies abandoned on the Llŷn Peninsula (Photo: Bernd Brueggemann/Getty)

Like a supervillain’s lair, towering high above the village of Trefor on the windswept Llŷn Peninsula , is Trefor Quarry – a huge industrial ruin on the side of the Yr Eifl hills.

Known locally as Y Gwaith Mawr or “the big works”, this enormous, granite quarry opened in 1850 and was a major employer in the region until its closure in 1963.

Crushed stone was sent down the steep incline in carts, continuing its journey from the village by steam train before being shipped off to Liverpool.

The old incline road is closed to vehicles, but the view of the sunrise from the peaks of Eryri National Park from atop this industrial giant is worth the calf-crunching walk from Trefor village, a kilometre below.

Harrison’s Rocks, East Sussex

Harrison’s Rocks sandstone ridge is perfect for views of the rising sun (Photo: HerbySussex/Getty)

Around 138 million years ago, at approximately teatime, iguanodons and sauropods, with their characteristic long necks, would have paddled or swum through Sussex’s floodplains, lakes, and lagoons.

Over eons, sand settled at the bottom of these bodies of water and became compressed into quartz-rich sandstone. Being a much tougher material, towering formations such as Harrison’s Rocks, on the Kent/Sussex border near Tunbridge Wells, remained as Ice Ages wore away softer rock.

Now, these unusual inland cliffs appear to rise from nowhere, seemingly lost among the dark moss, ferns, and trees. For views of the rising sun, scramble to the top of the rocks, and you might catch a glimpse through the foliage. Head to the south end of the ridge for the best eastern views.

highweald.org

St Ninians, Dunfermline

One of the ‘walnut whips’ at St Ninian’s (Photo: Dave Hamilton)

In 2009, work began to transform an enormous opencast mine in St Ninians, on the edge of the M90 near Dunfermline, into an artwork of rarely attempted scale.

Scottish Coal commissioned Baltimore-born land artist and architect, Charles Jencks, to complete the ambitious project. By sculpting coal waste into huge earthworks, Jencks began transforming this industrial eyesore into a thing of beauty.

However, in April 2013, the project was forced to end when the site owners went into receivership. Although the site remains half-complete, the summer solstice is one of the best times to climb the helter-skelter-like landforms, affectionately known as the Walnut Whips, and watch the rising sun.

fifewalking.com…