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Newgrange Winter Solstice 2014

On the days around the Winter Solstice when the skies are clear the rising sun illuminates the passage and chamber of the 5000 year old megalithic passage tomb at Newgrange in the Boyne Valley. Conditions were perfect on Friday 19th December for a magnificent solstice morning at Newgrange.

Winter solstice sunrise over a Boyne Valley field, with a large standing stone in the foreground and a leafless tree to the right The rising sun at Newgrange
Winter solstice sunlight illuminating the stone passage interior at Newgrange, with upright orthostats and a flat stone roof Winter Solstice Sunbeam in the Newgrange passage
Visitors in winter coats gathered at the Newgrange entrance with white quartz facade and roof box in golden morning light The white quartz glows in the sunlight at Newgrange
Newgrange with white quartz and granite facade, kerbstones at the base, standing stones in the grass and visitors at the entrance A perfect sunrise to illuminate the passage and chamber at Newgrange
Tourists at the Newgrange entrance beside Kerbstone K1, with the roof box and quartz facade lit by low winter sunlight The solstice lottery winners were experiencing a wonderful sunrise in the Newgrange chamber while the people outside waited patiently for their turn to enter the chamber
Newgrange passage interior looking toward the entrance, with sunlight from the roof box falling on the gravel floor The sunbeam retreating from the passage at Newgrange

5000 year old solar alignment

Above the entrance to Newgrange there is a opening called a roof box. On mornings around the winter solstice a beam of light penetrates the roof box and travels up the 19 meter passage and into the chamber. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens so that the whole chamber is dramatically illuminated.

Access to the chamber on the Solstice mornings is decided by a lottery that takes place at the end of September each year. All are welcome to gather outside the entrance to the Newgrange mound on each of the mornings from December 18th to December 23rd inclusive, sunrise is at 8.58am.

Newgrange Winter Solstice Archive

Close view of the Newgrange entrance and roof box, with carved lozenges on the lintel and quartz and cobble facade in golden light