Thousands of people have cheered and danced around Stonehenge as the sun rose over the prehistoric stone circle on the winter solstice.

The crowds, many dressed as druids and pagans, had gathered before dawn on Sunday (local time), waiting patiently in the dark and cold field in south-west England.

Some sang and beat drums while others took time to reflect among the huge stone pillars.

Many make the pilgrimage to the stone circle every summer and winter and consider it a spiritual experience.

The ancient monument, erected between 5000 and 3500 years ago, was built to align with the movement of the sun on the solstices – key dates in the calendar for ancient farmers.

English Heritage, the organisation that manages Stonehenge, said about 8500 people celebrated at the monument on Salisbury Plain, about 120 kilometres south-west of London. While a crowd, that’s well short of the reported peak of 25,000 people who turned out – in warmer weather – to mark the northern summer solstice back in June.

English Heritage said its livestream of the festivities drew more than 242,000 views from around the world.

“This is the time of the year that people in prehistory really revered and it was really important to them,” Win Scutt from English Heritage said.

Among the crowd was Australian man Bradley O’Neill, on the first stop of a European bucket-list tour.

“This was one of my long time wishes, to see Stonehenge” he told the BBC.

“I just like old mysteries. The world is full of questions and I’m not going to get many answers either, but I’m sure going to see something special.

“Today we get to touch the stones and feel the energy. The presence they have, it’s actually fantastic. I feel special, in my heart” he added, his eyes welling with tears.

Sunday is the shortest day of the year north of the equator, where the solstice marks the start of astronomical winter.

It is the opposite in the southern hemisphere, where it was the longest day of the year and summer will start.

The winter solstice is when the sun makes its shortest, lowest arc. Many celebrate it as a time of renewal because after Sunday, the sun starts climbing again and days will get a little longer every day until late June.

In Australia, as with the rest of the southern hemisphere, it is the opposite. Days will now get shorter until about June 21, when the process is reversed.

-with AAP