A fire ritual to mark the winter solstice sunrise on Sunday takes place on St Edmund's Hill, Glastonbury.

From 8.15am, viewers hope to see the annual spectacle of the rising sun climbing the northern slope of the Tor.

Ancient peoples held the winter solstice in special regard, seeing it as a time of transformation with the death and rebirth of the sun, and they honoured it by creating alignments to the sunrise from sacred sites, such as Stonehenge.

Later on Sunday, there will be the magical ceremony of lighting up the Alton Barnes White Horse in Wiltshire.

It will be fully lit with lanterns and candles by sunset, about 4pm. The event is linking with Adams County, Ohio, USA, where the famous 1,000-year-old Native American Serpent Mound is being similarly lit.

Meanwhile, roads through the "ghost village" of Imber on Salisbury Plain are open from 6pm today until 6pm on Sunday, January 4. There is a remembrance service in St Giles's Church there at 11am tomorrow, followed by a Christmas carol concert at 2.30pm and, on New Year's Eve, a peace vigil at noon.

Imber was taken over by the military, and its residents evicted, in World War II, and remains on the firing ranges to this day. Public access is allowed only at certain times of the year.