Wholistic Arts

Angelsey, Wales (Not our picture!) We spent the sunrise walking around the ruins of a celtic village overlooking the sea, pondering what life must have been like watching and waiting for the Romans to come and destroy all that you have worked for. Once the sun was up (again we didn't actually see it rise!), we walked around the spectacular coastal road and found this small dolmen. We hadn't gone there for sunrise for 2 reasons - first, we knew we'd never find it! and second, it is behind some trees and fenced off, so you can't see through it to see the sun anyway. Vic

Wet Withens, Derbyshire (Main picture is not ours - small pic taken on Dave's watch-camera!) We arrived at the site after midnight, and walked around the moors in the darkness for several hours, finding rocks we thought were it but weren't, and nearly walking off a sheer drop (dad's torchlight caught the top of a small tree growing out of the side of the rocks!). We also kept an eye out for the 'Fairy Lights' which are rumoured to appear on the moor at night - we noticed little dots of light which were reflections of distant streetlights in the puddles on the moor, but nothing that could be confused with fairy activity! As with nine ladies, it wasn't until it was nearly light that we found the place. I saw a person off in the distance, and said 'I bet its over there'. Again, we got to the middle of the circle just before sunrise which again was obstructed from our view (this time by a large hill). Vic

Nine Ladies, Stanton Moor This fabulous little stone circle was the start of a new 'trend' for our Solsticequinox trips - getting lost and then finding the place just moments before sunrise! It still continued our initial trend of not giving us a clear view of the sunrise (because of trees this time as much as clouds!) but by this time we'd got used to it, and standing in a stone circle at sunrise is pretty inspiring even if you can't actually see the sun. Walking through the forest to get there, we saw lots of make-shift tents of protesters trying to stop the local quarry from encroaching any closer to this ancient monument, and we realised that Breedon was right on the edge of a quarry too. Let's hope that modern consumerism doesn't eat up this beautiful ancient landmark. Vic

St Michael's Mount, Cornwall We travelled to Cornwall in Dad's Mazda MX5, with the top down at least part of the way because it was such a sunny, pleasant day. We slept in the car overlooking the island, and woke to find a really dim, cloudy morning! Yet another missed sunrise, but we'd grown used to it by then, and we spent the day on the island, wandering round looking for mysteries, and as always, speculating over the hidden meanings behind seemingly ordinary things. Vic

Glastonbury Tor, Somerset Going back to the Grail connection for this trip, we discovered why the Tor is thought to be King Arthur's Isle of Avalon when we climbed to the top and found ourselves completely surrounded my fog. As the daylight slowly crept in, the fog slowly receded to a thick mist, making the hill seem like an island floating on a white sea. We didn't get to see the sun rise as it was too cloudy, but we were pleasantly surprised when three witches (dressed in ordinary hiking clothes) came and offered us a drink of mead before returning to their ceremony. Vic

Breedon-on-the-Hill, Derby (This is not one of our photo's!) We went to Breedon because of work restrictions, as it is close to home. Nevertheless, this was not a casual choice, as it is quite a significant landmark on the Melbourne horizon, and is the crossing point for several ley-lines. Vic

Rosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh Long before reading The Da Vinci Code (or even before it was published, I think!), we decided to visit Rosslyn Chapel because of it's Knights Templar connections, and the rumour that the Holy Grail was buried somewhere beneath the crypts. We didn't find the Grail, but we did find lots of symbolism that we both found very exciting, and we had a wonderful time speculating about the builders of this marvelous little church. Vic

Stonehenge, Wiltshire What better place to start than at the most famous of all Solstice/Equinox related sites - Stonehenge. We spent most of the first day queuing in traffic waiting to be allowed into the parking area set up specially, but were pleased to be able to get into the site and walk around before sunset. We spoke to some druids, and watched them have a small ceremony for the sunset, and then spent the whole of the night wandering in and out of the stones, listening with awe at the way that the sounds of drums echoed around the structure, making it seem to dance with life. We watched the druids begin their ritual for the sunrise, and positioned ourselves perfectly to watch it rise through the henge stones. It started to rain, and we, like the thousand or more other spectators, were a little disappointed not to see the sun (little did we know that this was the pattern that we would follow for most of our excursions!), but we left feeling good about the overall experience. Vic