A vertex-transitive graph X is said to be half-arc-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on the set of edges of X but does not act transitively on the set of arcs of X. A classification of half-arc-transitive graphs on 4p vertices, where p is a prime, is given. Apart from an obvious infinite family of metacirculants, which exist for p≡1(mod4) and have been known before, there is an additional somewhat unique family of half-arc-transitive graphs of order 4p and valency 12; the latter exists only when p≡1(mod6) is of the form 22k+2k+1, k>1.