VISITORS to historic Stonehenge for the Winter Solstice will be able to pay for their parking with a 21st-century app for the first time.

Mobile parking payment firm PayByPhone has been appointed as provider for the UNESCO World Heritage Site, taking on the running of online parking payments at the Wiltshire site from December 17.

It comes ahead of an expected influx of visitors for the Winter Solstice celebrations, which will take place at sunrise on Saturday, December 21.

Stonehenge was built to align with the sun on the solstices; on the Winter Solstice, the sun sets to the south-west of the stone circle.

This year, the company said visitors – whether pagans, druids, spiritualists, locals, or simply tourists – can take advantage of cashless payment at the Stonehenge car park.

PayByPhone’s Maps feature also allows drivers to locate the car park at the visitor centre before they start their journey to Stonehenge and to pin their vehicle location once they have parked.

Adam Dolphin, UK MD for PayByPhone, said: “We are thrilled to launch PayByPhone at one of Britain’s most iconic sites – Stonehenge.

“PayByPhone will make the parking experience as hassle-free as possible for visitors so they can start their visit to the famous stone circle as quickly as possible rather than queue at a parking payment kiosk.

“I would encourage people planning to visit to download the app now. Registration takes less than 30 seconds.”

For the Winter Solstice, the Stonehenge car park opens at 5.15am.