Newgrange in brief
Newgrange stands on a ridge above the River Boyne in County Meath, about 8 kilometres west of Drogheda and roughly 50 kilometres north of Dublin. It is a round mound about 85 metres across and 12 metres high, with a stone passage inside that leads to a cross-shaped chamber. It was built around 3200 BC, in the Neolithic, and is part of a larger group of monuments called Brú na Bóinne, with the tombs of Knowth and Dowth, which UNESCO made a World Heritage Site in 1993.
The monument
The mound is made of earth and stones, with an outer wall of white quartz stones and rounded granite cobbles. The passage runs for 19 metres to the chamber, which has a corbelled roof, made of stones laid in overlapping courses, that has kept out the rain for over 5,000 years. Three recesses off the chamber held stone basins with cremated bones.
The tomb is surrounded by 97 kerbstones, many carved with patterns of spirals, circles and zigzags, such as the decorated stone at the entrance. The meaning of the carvings, called megalithic art, is unknown.
The winter solstice
Above the entrance is a small opening known as the roof-box. At dawn around 21 December, for a few days, the sun shines through the roof-box and along the passage, lighting the chamber for about 17 minutes. The alignment is too exact to be an accident, and shows that the builders knew where the sun would rise at midwinter. People can still enter the tomb at that time, with a lottery for places.
Excavation
The mound had collapsed and been overgrown. The archaeologist Michael O’Kelly led the excavation and restoration from 1962 to 1975. The white quartz wall in front of the tomb was rebuilt, based on stones that had fallen in front of it, and this is controversial, as some archaeologists doubt that the original facade looked like that.
The people
Ancient DNA from a skull fragment in the tomb, reported in 2020, showed that the person was a man of high status whose parents were first-degree relatives, probably brother and sister, a union known from some royal families in other societies, such as in ancient Egypt. His ancestry came from farmers who had come to Ireland from Anatolia via Britain, and his burial in the heart of the monument suggests he was a person of importance.
Visiting
The Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre, on the south bank of the Boyne, is the only way in. Tickets include a guided tour of Newgrange and Knowth, with a shuttle bus. The solstice lottery runs every year.
Sources
- O’Kelly, M. J. (1982). Newgrange: Archaeology, Art and Legend. Thames and Hudson.
- Cassidy, L. M. and others (2020). A dynastic elite in monumental Neolithic society. Nature 582: 384 to 388.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Brú na Bóinne.