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Illumination wanes rapidly as I am situated within the Tregeseal stone circle. The rock monoliths glow in this sombre countryside, resembling ethereal watchers gathered around to witness our actions. Above us, a expanse of brown heathland plants ascends toward Carn Kenidjack, the foreboding rock outcrop that dominates the naked vista. At night, this heath is reputed to be haunted by pixies and demons, and on occasion the devil himself emerges in search of wayward spirits.

Unconcerned by any otherworldly danger, we peer westward, in the direction of the hazy shapes on the horizon that are the distant Isles of Scilly. The sky break and a wave of golden light falls over the islands. My guide, archaeoastronomer a specialist in celestial alignments, and I gasp. It is marvellous a spectacle of nature which may have been enjoyed by the community who constructed this circle in the Neolithic era.

An Ancient Winter Solstice Landscape

We have gathered at Tregeseal to talk about the year's turning point. Carolyn’s work centers on the relationship of the region's ancient past with the cosmos, and she portrays the entire Penwith region as an prehistoric midwinter ceremonial ground. This, she says, is because of the spine of granite that travels south-west along the peninsula, pointing toward the December sunset. If, for example, you stand at midwinter by the ancient burial chamber of Chûn Quoit – the mushroom-shaped tomb upon the moors south of Morvah – you will see the sun descend over the distinctive tor on the south-western horizon. And in all likelihood this is exactly as its ancient engineers envisioned.

"Where better to honor the re-emergence of the sun than on the western tip, which aims directly at the sinking location of the sun on the day of least light?"

The theory posits that this ancient monument was intentionally placed to allow people to view the midwinter sun going down behind the Isles of Scilly. “Observed from here, Scilly is a threshold place. On a clear day with high pressure, the isles look close up and just seem to leap out. On cloudier occasions, they’re simply not there. The ancient people could have viewed Scilly as an otherworldly place, maybe a place of the dead, associated with the midwinter and the return of the light.”

Enigmatic Stones and Light Beams

We thread through the dusk-filled russet moor past prehistoric burial mounds and piles of mining slag to a mysterious monument, which may be the UK’s only Neolithic line of stones with holes. In contrast to the stone at Mên-an-Tol a few miles away, it’s difficult to squeeze through the stones at Kenidjack; these holes are only just big enough to insert my hand through and right down to the ground. Researchers remain perplexed.

Carolyn’s theory is that the series might have functioned as a kind of winter solstice countdown calendar, with the rising sun illuminating through the holes from autumn until December and creating shifting beams of light in the stones’ shadows. “Sensing the heat of that golden beam of sunlight in the frosty, dim moor gave me a tangible experience of how prehistoric people might have experienced winter solstice,” she says.

A great number of prehistoric monuments are aligned to the rising or setting of the sun at the year's extremes for it to be a accident. It stands to reason that prehistoric farmers, who relied on the sun for light, heat and the growth of crops, would want to track the sun’s path. But in the 21st century, the darkness of this time of year still weighs on our well-being, and so we anticipate the winter solstice, that most shadowy day of all before the sunlit time begin to grow again.

Ancient Markers and New Traditions

A bitter east wind is blowing, and strange cries rise from invisible cows as I tramp through wet clover to go and see the ancient standing stone, keeping watch as it has done for millennia 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 famous stone circle, figures turned to stone for breaking the Sabbath. I think about how long the stone has remained here, witnessing its vista of the Celtic Sea and English Channel: where once small craft would have drifted, now freighters and the Scilly ferry travel through.

"Montol reinvigorates the historic practice of masked dancing, with its elaborate masks and costumes, traditional carolling and music of pipe, drum and fiddle."

A filmmaker's captivating film, which documents a full year in the presence of this stone, emphasizes the power of its still and silent being in the dynamic landscape. “And I intentionally started and ended the film with the solstice,” he says, “because it is a point of unadulterated optimism – the pledge of the passing of darkness and a promising new year ahead.”

On the shortest day, all over West Penwith, people will be observing midwinter by processing to monuments, water sources, hill forts and heritage sites. Tours will be led to observe the sinking sun. Many will make their way to ancient stones in a sort of ceremony of reflection and renewal. Later, many people will gather into the harbour town for the midwinter event, a winter celebration that {dates only to|was established in|originated in