A NEW-AGE farmer who is creating his own Stonehenge hosted a party to celebrate a pagan festival this weekend.

Derek Plews, from Brompton, North Yorkshire, is building a stone arrangement called Sentry Circle on his land at Lenthor Farm.

He is halfway through the project and on Sunday night he laid a special stone, called the Welcome Stone, at the entrance to his property.

The stone has a hole in it that symbolises birth - in this case the birth of a community. It was laid at the end of the Beltane Festival, a pagan fire festival.

"We had about 200 to 300 people here at the weekend for the festival, in conjunction with the Thornborough Henges," said Mr Plews. "It started on Friday night when people gathered around the camp fire to sing and play guitars and didgeridoos. We also had DJs.

"It was nice. Everybody who came said what a fantastic weekend they'd had. They have been very chilled out and had some great entertainment and made some new friends."

Sentry Circle will be a commercial enterprise on completion, but it's main purpose is to aid spiritual development, said Mr Plews.

Every stone is placed according to megalithic measurements and is lined up astrologically. The stones are named after trees in the Celtic tree calendar and a piece of the tree they are named after will be buried underneath.

Mr Plews plans to hold a festival this summer and will host handfasting - the pagan equivalent of a marriage ceremony.