Experiencing the Winter Solstice at Newgrange   You are in · RoscreaOnline · Community · Features

George Cunningham, Roscrea was among the few privileged people to witness the dramatic winter solstice at Newgrange from inside the chamber on Tuesday 21st December 2004. In this short article he shares the experience with us.

Some experiences remain with you for ever. To mention just a few, I will never forget my first sight of the Grand Canyon, or my first exposure to the giant Redwoods of California or when Carmel and I hugged the oldest living trees in the world, the Bristlecone pines on top of White Mountain in the Sierra Nevadas; or my first sight of St Peter's in Rome. But the early morning of Tuesday, December 21st 2004 was something very special. From about 8.40 am, I was standing in darkness with other privileged people in the cross-shaped chamber in the middle of the burial mound of Newgrange, while hundreds gathered outside. Clare, manager of the Visitor Centre, unobtrusively filled in the historical background, but most of the time we stood in silence, knowing that these were very special moments. The forecast was good: it should be a clear sunrise. But just how good, nobody could really have imagined. Murmurs from outside noise gradually increased, giving an even more heightened sense of expectation. And then at 8.58 a pencil of sunlight appeared on the chamber floor. A ray of the rising sun, appearing above the hill opposite, had travelled through the roof box, along the passage to appear on the floor, just as it had done at this moment in time every year for over 5000 years. Gradually the ray broadened to about a foot in width and then started to flood the passageway as the sun's golden rising filled the roofbox above the entrance. For some seventeen minutes we were dazzled and humbled by Stone Age man's ingenuity as we reflected on what we were experiencing, and the privilege of just being there. What was their Ireland like? Who stood here 5000 years ago; who had to wait outside? Did a solstice like we were experiencing spell good omens for this sophisticated community? And adversely so did an overcast sky and no sunlight mean trouble and gloom ahead? As I stood in the company of the British ambassador, under a prehistoric Meath mound adjoining the site of the Battle of the Boyne I could not but be saddened as to how our very recent history has been allowed to shadow and cloud our wonderful heritage of millennia. Irish people, indeed, come from very many strands. How insulting to these ancestors must our shallow definition of nationalism seem? Still dazzled by the sun streaming in the roof box we exited the chamber to allow those waiting patiently outside to enter in their turn. A sense of what we saw and felt was captured in words and pictures in Wednesday's Irish Times. The shuttle bus brought us back to the Centre for a very modern solstice breakfast.

Tom Parlon T.D., Minister for State in charge of the OPW invited his former teacher, ex-Coolderry Principal, George Cunningham to be his guest at the winter Solstice in Newgrange, Bru na Boinne, Co Meath on Tuesday 21st December. Both are pictured above at the entrance to the passage grave after exiting the chamber where they experienced and witnessed a magnificent solstice.

Bru na Boinne: In this dramatic bend of the Boyne, 8 kms inland from Drogheda, about forty mounds of varying sizes bear testimony to intense Stone Age activity, dominated by the spectacular passage tombs of not only Newgrange but also Knowth and Dowth. Newgrange has become the best known of the Irish passage tombs, particularly so since Professor M.J.O'Kelly rediscovered the roof box and the wonder of the winter Solstice. Now with a quartz-faced facade, it is surrounded by a kerb of 97 stones, the most impressive of which is the entrance stone. The huge mound is known to contain the long passage into the central burial chamber where the winter solstice occurs. The area has been designated a World Heritage Site and is controlled by the Visitor Centre south-east of Newgrange across the Boyne river. Access to the monuments is by footbridge to a shuttle bus service. About 120,000 visitors a year are allowed access by guided tour to Newgrange and Knowth, while 250,000 visit the Centre. In peak season it is advisable to book; groups must always book ahead to be sure of access. 041 98880300 for bookings.