Just joined – long-time lurker with a summer solstice question!

Hi everyone! I've been reading Quirk Reports threads for about two years now (pure lurker, never posted) but finally decided to make an account because I've got a question that's been bugging me.

I'm based in Yorkshire, near Skipton, and I'm fascinated by the Neolithic sites around here - we've got some really interesting stone arrangements if you know where to look. Last summer solstice (June 21st), I went out to photograph some local standing stones and noticed something weird: the light at sunrise hit the stones at a completely different angle than I expected based on online research.

Either: (a) I miscalculated, (b) the stones have shifted over time, or (c) I was at the wrong location. But it got me thinking - how accurately do we actually know where ancient sites are, and could we be missing big alignments because of basic mapping errors?

Anyway, lovely to meet you all. This community seems less 'tinfoil hat' and more actually interested in real investigation, which is refreshing. Looking forward to chatting!

Welcome! Glad you finally posted. The lurker-to-poster journey is real. Your stone alignment question is genuinely interesting - GPS can be surprisingly inaccurate depending on terrain and signal, so it's possible you were filming from a slightly different position than you thought. Did you record your exact coordinates using a phone GPS?

Yorkshire's got some brilliant sites that don't get much attention compared to Stonehenge et al. The Twelve Apostles near Ilkley, various moor circles - loads of potential. If you're interested in solstice alignments specifically, I'd recommend checking historical maps too. Sometimes sites get moved or 'restored' in the Victorian era and the alignments get messed up accidentally.

This community seems less 'tinfoil hat' and more actually interested in real investigation

That's the vibe we try to maintain! There's definitely believers and skeptics in equal measure, but we all respect evidence and admit uncertainty. Looking forward to your posts on the Yorkshire sites. Those moorlands have brilliant folklore attached too if you're interested in that angle.

The solstice light angle thing is super cool. If you go back next year (or at Winter solstice) with precise GPS coordinates and better documentation, you might actually contribute something useful to the archaeological record. Universities sometimes appreciate citizen science data if it's properly recorded. Just saying - you could be onto something.