Winter solstice: Sun lights up Newgrange burial chamber

The sun did not disappoint the thousands who turned out for the first public winter solstice at Newgrange since the end of the pandemic.

Over the last two years Covid-19 succeeded in keeping crowds away from the megalithic monument on the shortest day of the year. In those two years the sunrise was live-streamed from inside the chamber.

This year, thousands made their way through the winter dawn for sunrise, scheduled for 8.58am. They beat drums and cow bells, plucked harps and guitars and felt privileged to be there despite the biting cold.

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Deano Stapleton, from Finglas, at Newgrange, Co Meath, on the morning of the winter solstice, which is marked by pagan celebrations. Newgrange is a prehistoric monument in County Meath, Ireland. It is thought the Neolithics built Newgrange over 5,000 years ago so that the sun shone on the ashes of their dead in the tomb, representing a sign of rebirth. Photograph Brian Lawless/PA

For many years, it has been too cloudy, foggy, rainy or misty for the sun’s rays to penetrate the roof box above the entrance and send a beam of light 19 metres down the chamber.

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This year the sun rose as scheduled at 8.54am, eliciting a huge cheer from those present outside. Inside, the dozen guests were treated to the sight of a sliver of light penetrating the chamber, illuminating the ancient stones.

The genius of the ancients inspired a sense of wonder in the crowd as they pondered how someone 5,200 years ago managed to track the exact passage of the sun on December 21st, and then align it with a small roofbox – all without clocks, sextants or measuring tapes.

[ Frank McNally gets a new angle on the winter solstice ]

There is huge demand from the public to be present for this precious moment every year. Some 33,000 entered the lottery draw to become the 12 members of the public (and five officials) allowed into the chamber on December 21st. It is in effect a lottery within a lottery as the weather invariably ruins the spectacle. But this year their luck was in.

Among those present was Canadian woman Rona Sherebrin who lives in Toronto with her Irish-born partner Dermot Costello. They were informed in October they had won the lottery to enter the chamber so they altered their Christmas plans to fly to Ireland.

“I have always been interested in archaeology and history, but this is the first time I have been here on site,” she said. “The opportunity to be here was so just so special, to be here in a place that was designed so long ago for this specific purpose – the human ingenuity was incredible. There is so much we do not know about the people who were here before us and they are our ancestors. We are still learning.”

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By contrast, Trudy Maguire only came from Duleek, Co Meath, a few kilometres away from Newgrange. She has been applying to the lottery for years but only won for the first time this year.

“It was mostly just daylight at the beginning and then a little sliver of golden light. It didn’t last very long, but we got to see it, so it was great. It was just amazing, just an otherworldly feeling,” she said.

Adrian Rowe from New Zealand arrived with his wife. “I was born during the summer solstice in New Zealand so it was a bit of a double birthday celebration for me,” he said. “We saw the sun for a couple of minutes. It was lovely.”

Monica Luccas and her friend Carolina Guimaraes, who are both Brazilian, have been living in Ireland for seven years. They had never heard of Newgrange before they arrived here, but they have been applying since they first became aware of it.

“It was emotional,” said Ms Luccas. “It was amazing. I have seen this online in 2020 and when my friend won the lottery, I said ‘I cannot miss this’. I can’t explain how I felt in the chamber. It was very overwhelming.”