The most mysterious and amazing solstice site in Northumberland is a 5,000-year-old solar viewing platform at The Beacon, Simonside Hills called Thompson's Rock.
The boulder is about 1.5 meters square with a 5cm wide hole running right through it, 1.79M in length.
The site consists of a rough circle of stones with Thompson's Rock in the middle. At the north side a stone appears to be missing, but there is stone in the ground at the position of the gap.
As the Sun sets on the Solstice over Yarnspeth Law in the Cheviot Hills (roughly 22km away) its rays are said to travel through the hole to the other side of the rock, we are hoping this is what we will see at this event
When the sun rises on the the winter solstice in December the sun’s light reaches four-fifths along the hole in the rock the other direction. It is thought that slight movement and settlement of the rocks during thousands of years may have caused a tilt and prevented the rays from travelling the full length of the hole.
