Solstice celebration shrouded in mist

They had come to see the sun come up, but instead they saw the mist come down.

A meteorological damp squib was thus added to the now annual disappointment felt by druids when they gather at Stonehenge for the summer solstice, only to be denied access to the ancient stones.

The longest day of the year has continued to draw crowds of worshippers to the site in Wiltshire despite their being excluded since 1985.

Thirty people were arrested by dawn as police guarded a four-mile exclusion zone around the monument.

But there was little other activity and the noisiest incident was a tirade from the back of a police van by Rolo Maufling, an arch-druid of the Glastonbury Order.

Wearing purple and turquoise robes and carrying a staff, he shouted: "I have a right to hold a religious service here. It is a historic right from 1176. English Heritage have taken my flowers and placed them on the altar."

Clews Everard, general manager of Stonehenge for English Heritage, sought to justify the exclusion and said: "Apart from the risk that people could get hurt, we don't want this important site to be damaged in any way."