Today, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, is the longest day of the year. Here's Nub News columnist Sparky on the summer solstice.

'For Neolithic people, the sky was the ceiling of their temple and the horizons were its walls'

Julian Cope, 'The Landscape Temples' from the Modern Antiquarian, 1994

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men, and all that…

The annual summer solstice ceremony planned for Stonehenge last Monday 'descended into chaos' apparently, as English Heritage withdrew permission for the druids, pagans and the curious to enter the stone circle to welcome the sun on the longest day.

Concerns regarding the flouting of Covid regulations, fears over a breakdown in public order and potential damage to the site were the main reasons given and photographs show security staff and the police physically removing those who had managed to get into the circle shortly before sunrise. The planned live internet feed was also suspended.

On the same day, some 25 miles north of Stonehenge in Avebury, a much larger and more raucous crowd were also doing their best to assemble at the largest Neolithic stone circle in the world.

However, a similar scenario unfolded as their plan to party the amongst the immense locally quarried sarsen stones was thwarted by a pre-emptive closure of the site by the National Trust and the actions of the Avon and Somerset Police.

I had visited Avebury- a UNESCO World Heritage Site- only the week before, missing the solstice itself by a few days.

In the Red Lion - the only pub in the world in the middle of a stone circle - some early arrivals for the soon-to-be-banned solstice party were already testing the local cider - just to make sure, you understand.

The burgeoning atmosphere at that time was one of joy and celebration and it crossed my mind that these travellers - the latter-day pilgrims congregating at both sites- were following a well-trodden path instigated some 5000 years ago.

And putting the actions of the authorities to one side for a moment, whose intended manner of celebration was closer to the true spirit of solstice: pious or party?

And where is the 'right' place to welcome the sun on the longest day? And this got me thinking…

Avebury is a nexus of the Neolithic world, and the stone and earthen structures aren't limited to the valley floor, either.

There are several tumuli (burial mounds) and other barrows sitting prominently atop the hills. These include the beautiful and atmospheric Waylands Smithy a few miles up the Ridgeway and the truly spectacular West Kennet Long Barrow on a hill nearer the village.

Despite their best efforts, the antiquarians of old could only guess as to the exact intentions of the builders and the true purpose of the site which dates back some three millennia before the birth of Christ.

Why did Neolithic man embark on such endeavours, and why at Avebury? And why at Stonehenge?

Well, some intriguing answers did eventually come, but from an unlikely source…

In the 1990s, eccentric rock star, personal hero and enthusiastic amateur antiquarian Julian Cope - from the 1980s band Teardrop Explodes - started to visit the most important Neolithic sites in Britain, pondering, making notes, writing poems and taking pictures as he did so. This odyssey resulted in the publication of his magnum opus - The Modern Antiquarian - in 1994.

Whilst recently re-reading this masterwork, I picked up on one recurrent theme not overtly expressed elsewhere: it might be the surrounding landscape - usually the higher ground - that is the 'temple' and possessed of sacred powers, rather than those ancient structures themselves.

Even in modern times, hills continue to draw mans' attention and it's easy to see why they might have been imbued with such powers by our ancestors.

Their height can lift you nearer to both the sky and the sun; their shape fires the imagination - even resembling recumbent giants on occasion - and from a practical point of view, they provide safety, a fine view and any trackways on the tops are better drained and usable all year round.

His arguments are convincing and made the more traditional historians take note.

You are probably by now asking yourself 'when is Sparky going to revert to more familiar ground and start banging on about how brilliant our local area is'? Well, wait no more, faithful reader…

Unlike the somewhat larger solstice throngs mentioned at the beginning, I too joined a very small crowd - more specifically my good friend Greg, a red kite, several skylarks and a sheep or two- at the summit of one of our own local Chiltern hills at just after 4am on Monday.

We too were there to await the appearance of the sun on this most auspicious of mornings and its eventual fiery appearance did not disappoint, despite some cloud, as you can see in my picture above.

We muttered a few words of thanks, obviously, and then went home for a well-earned cuppa, suitably energised by the encounter. We felt we had done the sun and the occasion full justice.

And despite the early morning chill, we will be back yet again in December for the shortest day, too. And then again next June. And so it goes.

But unlike the renowned sites such as Avebury and Stonehenge, what established sacred authority does this modest local hill have? Was it a respectful enough spot to welcome Sol Invictus - 'the unconquerable sun'?

Well, here's Robert Graves, the historian, poet and classicist, talking in a BBC interview in the late 1960s, as reported by Cope: "Practically all the holy places in the world have a circle of hills around and it makes something happen. Isn't that odd?". Quite.

Well, based on Julian's musings, I would say that our small hill is more than sacred enough and if you look it does have a surprising amount in common with some of those more high-profile solstice sites.

We too have rounded, shapely hills with fine views and natural shelter below; there are prominent burial mounds, such as Knocking Knoll, placed high on ridges so that they can be seen for miles.

We have the Icknield Way- a major ancient trackway that follows the higher ground and eventually joins the Ridgeway to Avebury itself, and there is evidence of early and continuous human settlement, as seen in the later iron age hillforts that dot our landscape and those striking cultivation terraces known as strip lynchets on the hillsides.

I could go on.

We may not have dramatic henges or standing stones, but it would seem that we do have our very own special, mystical and dare I say it - sacred - landscape right here on our own doorstep: the physical clues might be there but surely what really matters is what we have in our hearts and minds when we visit this place.

And where would our prehistoric ancestors have stood to welcome the sun on such a glorious solstice dawn?

Why, on the top of a local hill, of course. Just like we did.