Every year on the winter solstice, the inner chamber of the great Neolithic passage tomb at Newgrange in County Meath in Ireland’s Ancient East is illuminated at sunrise.
The dramatic phenomenon reflects a marvel of early astronomy and construction. On 21 December a single shaft of light pierces the monument through a perfectly placed window box at the passage entrance, creating a golden path all the way to the burial chamber at its heart.
Usually a limited number of tickets are issued for the event but this year the tomb will be closed due to Covid restrictions. Instead, the solstice sunrise event, which is of huge archaeo-astronomical significance, is to be live-streamed from within the chamber.
Newgrange is part of Brú na Bóinne, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the largest and most important prehistoric megalithic site in Europe and also includes the sites of Knowth and Dowth and the largest collection of megalithic art in Western Europe. Over 5,000 years old, Newgrange predates the great pyramid of Giza in Egypt and Stonehenge in Great Britain.
A silver lining of the closing of the tomb this solstice is that it presents an opportunity to carry out research which would not have been possible in any other year. The archaeological research project will focus on the movement of the winter sunlight coming through the window box into the chamber, to determine how the beam of dawn light interplays with the chamber before and after 21 December.