They’re the scene-grabbers, the whoopers of Stonehenge, but here’s where to be on the shortest day of the year, Avebury.
Avebury in Herself’s homeland of the south-west of England is thousands of years older than Stonehenge and more extensive.
A two-hour drive west of London and 40 miles north of Stonehenge it is also quieter and more accessible.
Yes, it has its share of crystal-loving, tree-hugging, lentil-loving Earth children.
But there’s more than enough space in the Wiltshire henge to get up close, personal, and touch your own stone.
Pagan worship
Avebury benefits too from its henge being part of a living, breathing village.
With, of course, kerching shops proliferating and the chance to stock up on New Age trinkets.
Including phallic ornaments and fertility symbols which they were big into in pagan days.
And well into the middle of the last century.
Before Alexander Keiller, heir to the Keiller marmalade empire, bought the site.
And cleared away buildings and re-erected many stones in the late 1930s.
Stone circle of life
Now for those who speculate about our neolithic forebears will tell you it must have taken hundreds of hours to erect the site.
Built between 2850 BC and 2200 BC it is the most complex and biggest of Britain’s surviving henge monuments.
Think theatres for rites and ceremonies and you’re probably near the mark.
With, of course, the cycles of the moon and sun playing into where and how the stones are lined up.
All of which as a daughter of this soil Herself enjoyed growing up.
And was in a position to share with us a young family when the Solar Eclipse came along.
In great shape
Now stone circles being a hobby horse of hers we’ve been dragged out on many a day out.
Trudging over fields across Britain and Ireland to find them.
All of which puts us in good shape to pounce when the moment comes.
And to share with our friends where to be on the shortest day of the year.