The largest crowd in recent years gathered at Stone Henge overnight to celebrate the Summer Solstice this morning as a further 1,000 congregated at Avebury.

Visitor numbers at the 5,000-year-old English Heritage Site on the Salisbury Plain totalled 24,094, up from 18,700 last year, to watch the longest day of the year dawn.

A spokesman said numbers swelled above a predicted 20,000 because extra people, on their way to Glastonbury music festival, stopped off to join the party.

Police were pleased to see that those attending had also heeded their warning to use public transport to get to the area as vehicle numbers at the gathering were also down on last year's total, dropping from 4,536 to 3,577.

As the sun rose at 4.58am a cheer went up from those gathered overnight at the stone circle on Salisbury Plain.

Revellers clad in antlers, black cloaks and oak leaves gathered at the Heel stone - a twisted, pockmarked pillar at the edge of the prehistoric monument - to welcome the rising sun.

"Happy Solstice" said Laura Tungate, 26, a financial adviser from Newcastle, who has attended the event for the past eight years.

"I love the whole vibe, and the energy, and the fact that these stones are alive, they do breathe, and they do grow and they're massive."

Jeanette Montesano, a 23-year-old religion graduate from New York and a self-described pagan, compared the importance of the trip with the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

"It's not the hajj, but it is 19,000 people in a little circle. I wanted to experience something like that," she said.

A spokeswoman for the Druid Network said: "The Summer Solstice is a way of attuning ourselves back into the cycles of nature, connecting with the land and the turning of the seasonal tides."

The atmosphere both there and at Avebury was peaceful, with just four arrests made at Stone Henge for minor public order offences.

There had been concerns trouble would flare at Avebury due to the National Trust's decision to ban high-sided vehicles from its overflow car park.

Scott Green, National Trust property manager, thanked all involved for making the solstice a peaceful and enjoyable celebration, and for using public transport.

Luckily there was only one short shower to contend with, although the cloud did to the most part cover the sunrise.

Superintendent Dave Bennett, of Wiltshire Police, said: 'We are pleased that, in partnership with English Heritage, Summer Solstice has passed off peacefully.

"There have been no incidents of any note. yet again attendees have not been able to fully see the sunrise given the nature of our unpredicatble British weather but al least it has remained dry."