STORY: :: Revelers, spiritualists and tourists gather at Stonehenge to celebrate the winter solstice

"I'm one of the senior Druids, which means that I'm a head of the Druid order. I'm here to celebrate the solstice. So I'm here four times a year to celebrate solstices in equinoxes, spring, summer, autumn and winter. Today is one of the very important ones. Because we know as a leap of faith, from today, the sun will return and the days will get longer, the nights will get shorter. And it's what we call the returning of the sun."

:: Artemis Bear, Activist

"It means spending time together as a family and there's something really meaningful about doing something that people have been doing for thousands of years. It just feels incredibly, incredibly meaningful. And there is a real pull. Having been here once, I just I felt really compelled to come back."

People braved the cold weather to carry out traditional rituals marking the shortest day of the year.

The circle of standing stones in the southern county of Wiltshire each year attracts Druids, a pagan religious order dating back to Celtic Britain, to celebrate both the winter and summer solstices.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site, which archaeologists believe was built between 3000 BC to 2000 BC, is built in alignment to the midsummer sunrise and the midwinter sunset.