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Illumination wanes quickly as I position myself within the ancient ring of stones at Tregeseal. The granite stones appear luminous in this brooding terrain, resembling ethereal watchers collected round to see our presence. Overhead, a blanket of dried ferns and scrub ascends toward the prominent outcrop, the sinister rock outcrop that overshadows the bare horizon. After dark, this moorland is said to be haunted by supernatural beings, and sometimes Old Nick emerges in search of lost souls.

Unconcerned by potential otherworldly danger, we gaze toward the ocean, at the distant forms on the horizon that are the remote Isles of Scilly. The clouds crack open and a flood of sunlight spills over the islands. My guide, researcher an authority on prehistoric astronomy, and I marvel. It is stunning a spectacle of nature which may have been enjoyed by the people who built this circle in the Neolithic era.

A Prehistoric Midwinter Vista

We have met at Tregeseal to discuss the midwinter. Carolyn’s work examines the interplay of the region's ancient past with the cosmos, and she characterizes the entire Land’s End peninsula as an prehistoric midwinter ceremonial ground. This, she says, is because of the ridge of igneous rock that travels south-west along the peninsula, pointing toward the solstice sunset. If, for example, you position yourself at midwinter by the ancient burial chamber of Chûn Quoit – the capstoned tomb high on the moors south of Morvah – you will see the sun descend over the rocky hill on the western horizon. And in all likelihood this is just as Chûn Quoit’s Stone Age constructors planned.

"Is there a more fitting location to mark the return of the light than on the Penwith peninsula, which is oriented toward the setting point of the sun on the winter solstice?"

Carolyn suggests that Tregeseal stone circle was intentionally placed to allow people to observe the midwinter sun setting behind the Isles of Scilly. “Seen from here, Scilly is a threshold place. On a bright day with fair conditions, the isles look nearby and just appear vividly. On different days, they’re simply not there. The ancient people could have viewed Scilly as an land of the dead, perhaps a land of ancestors, linked to the darkest day and the renewal of the light.”

Enigmatic Stones and Light Beams

We thread through the shadowy brown moor past ancient tumuli and piles of mining slag to a enigmatic structure, which may be the UK’s only ancient row of stones with holes. In contrast to the stone at its more renowned counterpart a few miles away, it’s impossible to pass through the Kenidjack holed stones; these apertures are barely big enough to pass my hand through and right down to the ground. Researchers remain puzzled.

A proposed explanation is that the row might have functioned as a kind of winter solstice countdown calendar, with the morning sun illuminating through the holes from late October until December and creating varying rays of sunlight in the stones’ shadows. “Feeling the glow of that sunbeam of sunlight in the chilly, gloomy moor gave me a profound understanding of how ancient communities might have marked the solstice,” she says.

A great number of heritage locations are oriented to the dawn or dusk of the sun at the solstices for it to be a coincidence. It stands to reason that ancient cultivators, who needed the sun for light, heat and the success of crops, would want to track the sun’s movement. But in the modern era, the darkness of this time of year still weighs on our spirits, and so we welcome the midwinter, that darkest day of all before the daylight hours begin to lengthen again.

Enduring Monoliths and Contemporary Celebrations

A chilly east wind is whipping, and haunting moaning rise from unseen cows as I walk through wet clover to go and see the ancient standing stone, watching over as it has done for thousands of years above the peninsula’s south coast. It is just one of scores of prehistoric stones that stand in isolation or in groups or rings all over the peninsula; less than a mile away are the well-known stone circle, maidens transformed into rock for violating the Sabbath. I think about how long the stone has persisted here, witnessing its view of the coastal waters: where once small craft would have sailed, now cargo vessels and the passenger ferry sail past.

"This midwinter event brings back the ancient tradition of guise dancing, with its detailed outfits, folk singing and music of woodwind, percussion and strings."

One artist's hypnotic film, chronicling 12 months in the presence of this stone, highlights the impact of its still and silent being in the dynamic landscape. “And I purposely began and concluded the film with midwinter,” he says, “because it is a point of sheer anticipation – the pledge of the passing of the dark and a bright new year ahead.”

On 21 December, all over the peninsula, people will be celebrating the turning of the year by processing to stone circles, water sources, ancient fortifications and ancient beacons. Excursions will be conducted to observe the sunset. Many will make their way to monoliths in a kind of practice of contemplation and rebirth. Later, many people will gather into Penzance for the Montol festival, a midwinter festival that {dates only to|was established in|originated in