West Kennet Long Barrow

Sunset? This is an interesting photo - when was it taken?

I guessed it must have been relatively close to the winter solstice; I was walking back from WKLB at the end of January and the sun seemed to be setting behind Swallowhead Spring. Where you are positioned has a bearing of course and in the summer months from the Palisade area (quite close to the barrow) the sun seems to set, with spectacular effect, behind Silbury Hill. Not really making any particular point here, just an observation. What ever else went on there is little doubt the ancients used the landscape as a solar observatory, though maybe in the 'everyday' sense as we do ourselves today.