Sacred Sites - Stonehenge
A return to the stone circle that first taught me wonder
Solstice greetings everyone…is it really that time already?
Litha, as this time is known in the Celtic Wheel of the Year, is when the sun reaches the pinnacle of its power and we enjoy the longest day. It’s a time of celebration when, in the past, fires were lit and people leapt through the flames to invite abundance and fertility. Cartwheels covered in straw were set alight and rolled down hillsides. Known as fate wheels, the bounty of the coming harvest was said to depend on how long they burned or how far they rolled.
It always feels like a sacred pause to me, a brief stillness suspended in the warm light of summer, before the slow return of the darker half of the year. I like to celebrate in a far safer way than fires and cartwheels, by lighting candles to honour the pause and using this time to look back over the months since Yule, reflecting on what I’ve achieved and the events that have shaped my year so far.
2026 has felt like a blur – filled with small but demanding challenges that together have played havoc with my creative rhythm. I lost the flow of my bi-weekly Substack posts and, if I’m honest, my writing mojo too.
The biggest thief of my time has been the campaign to fight the development of grassland and woods behind our homes, a plan that threatened 60 trees and an ecologically important wildlife habitat. It would’ve caused all sorts of issues for the bordering nature reserve and SSSI that I’ve documented in previous posts.
The good news is that after 8 months of rallying support, scrutinising every survey and report, and working with councillors and local organisations last week I got the news that we had all been hoping for… the planning application was withdrawn. A collective sigh of relief was felt across my neighbourhood as we received written confirmation.
We’ve won, which has made all the hard work worthwhile, however, it came at the cost of time spent on my creative passion, photography, leaving me more than a little exhausted. So, although I’m not back to a two weekly rhythm yet, I’m hoping to write more regularly after my summer break in August.
Which brings me to a topic I’ve neglected this year, Sacred Sites. This week it felt fitting to share images made over the course of three visits to the most famous of all stone circles - Stonehenge. It’s where my fascination with stone circles began during that heatwave summer of 1976. I wrote about this introduction to them in my first Sacred Sites post last year. We hoped to visit again this year as part of a sacred site road trip, however the universe had other plans, cancelling it three times. So, let’s call this a virtual return for now.
There’s no doubt, Stonehenge really is an amazing sight when it looms into view, whether glimpsed driving along the A303 or approached on foot from the visitor centre. Sadly, English Heritage restricts access to these magnificent megaliths, very unlike the freedom I had to walk amongst the stones in my teens. Now, with 1.4 million visitors a year, peaceful moments are rare.
So here’s a couple of tips for any potential visitors among you who are looking for a peaceful visit - I’ve learned to get there either as soon as it opens or towards the end of the day when all the coaches have left and families are thinking about tea for the kids. Even then there’s always people wandering in and out of shot and I confess I’ve removed people from the three main images of the stones shown here.
My second tip is to walk in the wider sacred landscape – that’s a highlight for me where I find my peace. Salisbury Plain, is vast, stark and exposed with big open skies where weather races in at speed, blue skies fill with purple clouds, their shadows skimming the grassland. And, be warned, there’s very little shelter!
I like to walk to the stones past a Celtic cross memorial to a pilot from the early British military flying corps, set in a peaceful clearing amongst a small stand of trees. Then on past arable fields where I often stop to scan the rows of crops rippling in the wind and their flower filled margins, hoping for a sighting of the brown hares that thrive in this protected ancient chalk grassland.
The megaliths themselves have such presence, and even when surrounded by hundreds of others I feel the ancient knowledge and energy they hold. Rooks and Jackdaws perching on top of the weathered stones, or picking their way amongst them, add to the sense of myth and mystery.
Leaving the circle, I turn to my favourite part of the site, the walk up via the Stonehenge Avenue to the Cursus, a long neolithic earthwork created hundreds of years before the circle was constructed and thought to have been part of a sacred processional route. In early summer the path is lined with wild flowers and swaying grasses and I’m often accompanied by the song of skylarks, rising up from their nests, filling the air with song at the slightest disturbance.
Here I often wander amongst the many barrows, said to have been created around the time of the completion of Stonehenge circle. They cover the graves of clan chiefs, spiritual leaders and the master craftsmen of that time, along with their families. I take a slow wander through wide open fields, where hares watch protectively over their leverets whilst red kites circle above. On the way back to the visitor centre I pass a more contemporary monolith, an old abandoned concrete silage tower. Too costly to demolish, it’s been allowed to stand and become a modern landmark amongst the ancient history of the area.
Strangely, it feels right to be revisiting these images rather than the sacred site itself this Solstice. The months since Yule have brought challenges I didn’t expect, frustrations and a hard won victory that’s consumed so much of my time and energy. Looking through these photographs has reminded me of something I lost sight of along the way…the importance of making time for wonder, curiosity and simply just being. As the wheel turns once more towards the darker half of the year, I’m hoping to carry more of that spirit with me and to gently rebuild the creative rhythm that’s been missing from my life for too long. Oh…and I hope to finally make that road trip to Avebury and Stonehenge that’s been so elusive this year!
Wishing you all a bright and blessed Solstice and may you enjoy an abundance of creativity and inspiration in the days ahead.
And finally – this week I heard the sad news from the RSPB that the Major Oak, one of Europe’s oldest and most famous trees has died. It’s said to have been the tree that the legendary Robin Hood and his Merry Men met and slept under in Sherwood Forest, whilst hiding from the Sheriff of Nottingham. They believe that, as well as being stressed by recent hot dry summers, the compaction of the soil from thousands of yearly visitors, along with well-meaning human efforts to save the tree by adding metal posts to hold up its branches, has caused its demise. I’ve never had a chance to photograph this ancient, however, one photographer who has is Beth Moon – her entire ‘Portraits of Time’ series of images are beautiful and these two of the oak before and after intervention are particularly important now.
I’ll leave it there for now. Until the next time, thank you so much for joining me on my journey and for reading my posts, I truly appreciate your feedback and support
Dear Lin,
I can't help but be drawn to the sky in your photos. All those glorious clouds, so beautifully rendered in black and white. Here in this season of Wind I am in. Of course I'm drawn to the sky.
Thank you for sharing the pictures of the oak tree. That is sad news -- it is a STUNNING tree!! XO
Glad to see you posting again, and very good news about the planning application