Winter
The Winter Solstice in the UK: Stonehenge, Maeshowe and More
Photo: rick carter / Google
The shortest day falls on 21 December in 2026. Where to mark it in Britain, from sunrise inside the circle at Stonehenge to the Neolithic tomb in Orkney that the setting sun lights up from within.
The winter solstice — the shortest day and longest night of the year — falls on Monday 21 December 2026. For the people who built Britain's oldest monuments, it was clearly a moment that mattered: several of them are aligned to the midwinter sun. Some of those alignments still work, and you can go and see them.
At a glance
Solstice: Monday 21 December 2026. Stonehenge: free managed-access sunrise, date set by English Heritage. Maeshowe: sunset lights the chamber for weeks either side, by booked tour. Avebury: open and free.
Stonehenge, Wiltshire
Stonehenge is famous for the summer solstice sunrise, but its principal alignment may be the opposite one: the midwinter sunset. Each year English Heritage opens the stones for a free managed-access sunrise gathering around the solstice, the one time you can walk inside the circle without booking a special visit. Around 8,500 people came in 2025.
Practical notes
English Heritage confirms the date, timings and travel arrangements each autumn; for 2026 it has indicated 22 December. It is cold, dark and crowded before dawn, so dress for it and expect queues. Amesbury and Salisbury are the nearest places to stay.
Avebury
Nearby Avebury, the largest stone circle in Britain, is open at all times and free, and draws a smaller and quieter solstice crowd.
Maeshowe, Orkney
This chambered tomb, built almost five thousand years ago, is one of the finest Neolithic buildings in Europe. For about three weeks either side of the solstice, the light of the setting sun shines straight down its long entrance passage and lights up the back wall of the chamber inside.
Seeing it
Visits to Maeshowe are by guided tour with Historic Environment Scotland and must be booked ahead. Whether you see the effect depends entirely on clear skies at sunset, which in an Orkney December is never guaranteed. The tomb is between Stromness and Kirkwall on Orkney.
The shortest days
The further north you go, the shorter the solstice day. London gets nearly eight hours of daylight; Lerwick in Shetland gets under six. That makes a far-north solstice trip a strange and memorable experience: low gold light all day and a very long night.
Planning a midwinter trip
Wassailing in January
After the solstice, the old tradition of wassailing the orchards — toasting the apple trees with cider to bless the coming harvest — is kept alive in the cider country of the West Country and beyond, traditionally around Twelfth Night in early or mid January. Many orchards and cider makers hold public wassails.
Short days mean planning around daylight: start walks early and keep evenings for indoors. For more ideas, see our guides to dark-sky staycations and winter fire festivals.
More staycation ideas
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