Winter solstice vigil gone wrong – something came to the stone circle

I'm posting this because I need to document what happened and maybe get some perspective from people who understand this stuff. I'm not usually one for 'woo woo' but I'm genuinely unsettled.

Last December 21st, I was doing a solstice vigil at Fernworthy Stone Circle on Bodmin Moor (yeah, I know, I seem to like Bodmin). I went alone, arrived around 4pm, spent the evening meditating and observing the sunset. Nothing unusual - beautiful evening, peaceful energy, felt quite spiritual.

Around 10:30pm, when it was properly dark, I heard breathing that wasn't mine. Not human breathing - wet, rasping, like something with a chest infection. It seemed to be circling me, about 10 feet away. I couldn't see anything, but I could sense something was there. The temperature dropped maybe 8 degrees in seconds. My torch (Maglite) started flickering even though the batteries were new.

I ran. Properly ran. Got back to my car and didn't stop driving until I was in Bodmin town. Haven't been back since. I'm not saying it was supernatural - could've been a badger or deer - but the breathing and the temperature drop and the torch malfunction all at once felt coordinated. Felt intentional. Anyone else had something like this?

The torch flickering with new batteries is actually interesting. Electromagnetic interference can cause that. Depending on the stone composition at Fernworthy (granite probably), there could be natural EM emissions that interfered with your torch's circuitry. The breathing sound could've been the wind through the stone gaps creating a weird acoustic effect - the mind fills in patterns, especially when you're meditating and primed to be receptive.

Temperature drops near stone circles are sometimes documented. Whether that's thermal properties of the stones, local microclimate conditions, or something weirder depends who you ask. The breathing though - if it was coordinated circling behaviour, that's more likely an animal than anything paranormal. Deer can sound creepy as hell in the dark, honestly. Big chest sounds, weird vocalizations.

felt coordinated. Felt intentional.

This is the subjective experience part that's hard to verify. Our brains are brilliant at pattern-matching and assigning intentionality to things. When you're alone in the dark at a sacred site, probably in a meditative/altered state, the mind is primed to interpret sensory info as meaningful. That doesn't mean nothing was there - just means we should be cautious about the interpretation.

Have you considered that you might've had a panic attack? Solitude + darkness + meditation can sometimes trigger dissociative episodes. The breathing you heard could've been your own breathing amplified by anxiety, the temperature drop your nervous system response, the torch malfunction... well, that's still odd. But everything else has straightforward explanations.

I've had experiences like this at Fernworthy before. Not saying it's definitely paranormal, but the energy there does feel different from other sites. There's something about that circle. Whether it's geology, history, or something weirder, I don't know. I'd go back during daylight first though, before attempting another vigil. Don't push your luck.

Respect for sharing this honestly. Too many people either dismiss everything as BS or jump straight to 'ALIENS!' You clearly had a real experience, whether the cause is mundane or anomalous. The fact you're not sure yourself shows good critical thinking. Might be worth keeping a journal of any other strange experiences - patterns sometimes emerge over time.