Visitors return to Newgrange for winter solstice after pandemic break

Members of the public gathered at an ancient site in Co Meath for the first time in two years to witness its winter solstice illumination.

Built by Stone Age farmers around 3,200 BC, making it older than the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge, the Newgrange monument is one of Ireland’s most famous heritage sites.

In clear weather on the shortest day of the year, direct sunlight enters Newgrange at sunrise.

This happens through a small opening above the entrance known as “the roof box”.

The chamber is lit up for 17 minutes, in a phenomenon that members of the public can wait years to see first-hand.

Since 2000, the Office of Public Works (OPW) has operated a lottery draw for a place in the chamber at Newgrange to witness the winter solstice on December 21.

Around 30,000 applications are made to the solstice lottery each year.

Visitors were not facilitated during the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning the public were welcomed back to the tomb for the first time in two years on Wednesday morning.

Minister for the OPW Patrick O’Donovan said that for many, the winter solstice marked “a very significant and special occasion, where we bid farewell to the long dark evenings and herald a bright beginning for the year ahead”.

Newgrange is part of a complex of ancient monuments along the River Boyne called Bru na Boinne, and is considered a place of astrological, spiritual and ceremonial importance.

The alignment of the passage tomb at Newgrange to the winter solstice sun is considered to be of global significance; a growing body of evidence also suggests the illumination of the tomb was intentional.