Hogmanay.net

Neolithic architects built a dark chamber that, on the shortest day in the calendar, the Winter Solstice, is flooded with warm sunlight. Around 5000 years on this event is being transmitted over the web.

Each day in December the setting sun moves incrementally across a narrow South Westerly doorway in the cairn in Maeshowe in Orkney. The doorway leads down an 11 metre (36 feet) long narrow passage, which opens to the large inner chamber (4.6 m/15 ft, pictured above) which it is believed was the burial chamber.

It's probably the ultimate hangover cure: join a whirling scrimmage of men, on a windswept Northly Scottish isle, in a game with shadowy rules, looking for a ball that can be exhaustingly elusive.

At least that's one way of looking at the Christmas Day and New Year's Day Ba's which are contested in the streets of Orkney each year. For the men involved (women appear to be on the sidelines of this rough 'n' tumble sport) it's a lot more than vigorous exercise.