The Summer season Solstice has been celebrated for hundreds of years and was particularly necessary to our anicent ancestors. Be a part of us on a whistlestop tour of among the prehistoric locations and practices related to the longest day of the yr.
The Ring of Brodgar, one in all a number of historic locations in Scotland related to solstice celebrations
What’s the Summer season Solstice?
The Summer season Solstice is the longest day of the yr. Within the Northern Hemisphere that’s usually 21 June (generally a day both facet) and 2023 is not any completely different. This occurs when the solar at its farthest from the equator, that means it’s seen for the longest, marking midsummer.
Prehistoric individuals would have simply noticed the rising and setting of the solar, and the cycles of this, together with these of different celestial our bodies would have allowed them to trace progress by the yr. This may occasionally have indicated to them necessary timings for the rising and harvesting of crops.
A stone circle on Machrie Moor, Arran
Grand designs
Many Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments seem to have been constructed across the place of the solar on the Summer season and/or Winter Solstices. It’s tough to make sure about their actual goal. However work carried out by archaeologists provides us an inkling as to what they could have been used for.
Archaeologists have calculated and noticed that some monuments look like aligned with the dawn of the Summer season Solstice. At Machrie Moor, Arran, 4 of the stone circles are aligned with a outstanding notch on the head of Machrie. On midsummers day, the solar rises from this notch.
Recumbent stone circles, like this one at Loanhead close to Inverurie, display an curiosity within the sky at midsummer.
Recumbent stone circles, similar to these at Loanhead and Tomnaverie, are distinctive to the north-east of Scotland. They function a big stone laid on its facet (recumbent), flanked by two upright stones.
These monuments are present in locations with open views to the south. They appear to have been designed to border the Moon, with a selected concentrate on the midsummer Moon.
At Tomnaverie, analysis has recommended that the route of the summer season solstice is marked by the diminutive orthostat on the north-east arc of the ring, and the circularity of the monument traces out the photo voltaic yr. It’s even been thought-about that the particular forms of stone used within the monument replicate the rising and setting solar.
Tomnaverie Stone Circle
A particular gathering
We are able to think about that the prehistoric inhabitants of the world, and maybe even a lot wider, would collect on Machrie Moor to look at the solstice at a location which was clearly essential to them.
At Calanais I on Lewis analysis by Dr Gail Higginbottom has proven that when you stand within the centre of the circle throughout the Summer season Solstice you’ll seen the solar rise over one of many stones. Dr Higginbottom has calculated that there’s solely a 1.25% chance that that is by likelihood.
Calanais Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis
At (or near) different prehistoric monuments displaying alignment for the Summer season Solstice, archaeologists have discovered proof of feasting and communal gatherings. It’s straightforward to conceive that longest day would have been a day of a lot celebration and ceremony.
Maybe this additionally coincided with individuals gathering pitchstone from the outcrops on Arran earlier than taking it to places throughout northern Britain.
Standing stones on Machrie Moor, the place prehistoric communities could have gathered to mark the Summer season Solstice
Continued traditions
Midsummer has been celebrated in northern Europe into the current day, and traditions such because the lighting of bonfires, the elevating of maypoles and dancing are nonetheless practiced. With the institution of the Christian Church, pagan celebrations, together with the solstice, have been integrated into feast days.
St John’s day (celebrating the start of John the Baptist) falls on the Summer season Solstice, and current analysis of the Ruthwell Cross has proven that the panel depicting John the Baptist with the lamb of God would have, when the Cross was in its unique location, confronted west in direction of the setting solar:
this orientation corresponds with the liturgical feasts celebrating the start of John the Baptist close to the summer season solstice”
The Ruthwell Cross is 5.2 metres tall and was carved within the early 700s. It’s now positioned contained in the parish church of Ruthwell, Dumfries and Galloway
Watch the dawn
Numerous our Properties in Care, a few of that are prehistoric monuments, have seen gatherings for the Summer season Solstice through the years.
Cairnpapple Hill, Holyrood Park, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness are among the different locations that folks have chosen to go to to look at the particular dawn.
Cairnpapple Hill
In the event you’re getting up and about early for the Summer season Solstice this yr, we’d like to see your images! You’re all the time welcome to share snaps of your historic adventures on our Historic Scotland social media channels. Discover us on Instagram, Fb and Twitter.
Need extra from our prehistoric websites? Take a look at the fascinating story of the mom and daughter duo who investigated Clava Cairns almost 200 years in the past.
