Thousands welcome winter solstice as Sun rises over Stonehenge

A lot of joy and emotion at start of winter solsticepublished at 10:47 GMT

10:47 GMT

Sophie Parker
Reporting from Stonehenge

BBC’s Sophie Parker has been reporting from Stonehenge this morning, on the day of the winter solstice. Here are her reflections.

With 8,500 people at Stonehenge, the stone circle was busy, with this being one of the rare opportunities for people to get up close to them.

It can be difficult to get the middle, you have to be there early.

There was drumming for hours, plenty of cheering and even people being taught to Morris dance.

Many come for the spiritual experience, who are part of the pagan communities or who have always dreamed of seeing it, which means a lot of emotion there too.

My hands were slowly getting colder throughout the morning but the weather was quite mild for December.

While there was lot of joy, there wasn’t a unified moment of cheering for the sunrise – likely because of the cloud.