Winter Solstice — The Turning Year Saturday 19 December 2026 · 12:00 on-wards · Kennels Cottage Barn, Hensol Woods, Mossdale, Dumfries & Galloway.

This is the darkest day. At noon on 19 December, the sun is still climbing — but only just. By 3pm it is already falling back toward the horizon. By 5pm, darkness. We will be here to witness it. For most of the year, we move through light. We wake in it, work in it, know our way by it. On this day — the day the wheel turns slowest before turning back — we gather instead around fire.

There is no journey to take on the winter solstice. There is only waiting. Only watching. Only tending the fire as the light drains from the sky and the year moves toward its turning point. This is not a human moment. We do not control it. We can only choose to be present for it — to feel the cold, to tend the warmth, to sit with what the year has made of us as we move into its darkest threshold.

The shape of the day: We gather around the fire from midday onwards. Bring what the day has made of you. Bring questions, silence, stories — or nothing but your presence. As the afternoon light changes, we stay. We tend the fire. We eat together, simply. We sit with the woods as they darken. We wait for the turn.

The practicalities: Ten people. A contemplative pace. Warm layers, good boots. The barn shelters us; the fire warms us. There is no experience necessary — only a willingness to sit still as the year moves toward its threshold.
Places are limited. Book early at naturallysmart.world or here: https://www.ticketsource.com/ticketshop/iframe/event.php?eventhash=e-bpgzgr&target=