Crowds gather at Stonehenge for winter solstice celebrations

Thousands of people greeted the sunrise with cheers as it rose over Stonehenge for the winter solstice.

Marking the shortest day and the longest night of the year, the sun rose over the neolithic monument in Wiltshire at 8:09am. It will set again eight hours later, at 4:02pm on Friday 22 December.

In the northern hemisphere, the Earth's axis is tilted at its furthest point away from the sun on the winter solstice.

Stonehenge is a monument built on the alignment of the midsummer sunrise and the midwinter sunset.

It is believed that solstices have been celebrated at Stonehenge for thousands of years, and it is one of the key occasions where English Heritage allows people near the stones.

English Heritage’s Rebecca Eade said thousands of people travelled to Stonehenge for this year's winter solstice celebrations.

"It was wonderful to welcome approximately 6,000 people to Stonehenge this morning to celebrate a chilly winter solstice," she said.

"It was a peaceful celebration and despite a cloudy and blustery start, people did enjoy a bright winter solstice sunrise.”

She added a further 98,500 people from around the world watched the sunrise via an online livestream.

Elsewhere, the midwinter solstice was celebrated with fire, beasts and masks on Thursday 21 December at the Montol Festival, in Penzance.

Thousands gathered in the town centre to celebrate a variety of historic midwinter customs and Christmas traditions which were once common to much of Cornwall.

The festival has been held in the town since 2007 to coincide with the winter solstice, with Montol meaning solstice in Cornish.

The event runs across six days and always culminates on 21 December with a torch-lit parade and dancing.