History and Meaning of Newgrange
  

The illumination of the passage and chamber at Newgrange Winter Solstice by winter solstice sunrises is world famous. Less well known is the illumination of the passage and chamber at Dowth Dowth Sunsets by winter sunsets.

Dowth  is one of the 3 principle mounds of the Boyne Valley, Anne-Marie Moroney has been observing winter sunsets at Dowth since 1997. From the beginning of October to the end of February the sun sends its rays from the south-west into the chamber. As the sun appears progressively lower in the sky towards the winter solstice, the beam travels first over the sill stone, then enters the chamber and finally shines directly onto the stones at the back of the chamber.

As I said earlier a lot of our celtic jewelry is inspired by the The Megalithic Passage Tomb at Newgrange which was built about 3200 BC. The outer kidney shaped mound covers an area of over one acre and is surrounded by 97 Kerbstones, many of which are decorated. The 19 metre long inner passage leads to a cruciform chamber. It is estimated that the construction of the Passage Tomb at Newgrange would have taken a work force of 300 at least 20 years
 

   The Circle of Life - as seen on an entrance    Stone in Newgrange - click on image to see further details on Newgrange Tombstones.

 

 
 

As you can see from the photo above this is one of the carvings.   This design it is thought to believe means the continuation of life.  The eternal life which never comes to an end.  If you study most Celtic Jewelry you will see there is a lot of knot work and spirals.  The knot work - like the spirals - reflects continuation.

Some time after 6,000 years ago, a most advanced community of people arose in Ireland. They were the builders of the great Stone Age monuments of Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth, Loughcrew and Fourknocks. The Boyne Valley sites are over 1,000 years older than the Giza pyramids - Newgrange is the most famous site, with its Winter Solstice sunrise alignment, but Knowth has been dated to 3,300BC, and Dowth may be older still. The plethora of cairns on
the Hills of Loughcrew may even predate the Brú na Bóinne sites. Smaller mounds at Fourknocks and at the ancient seat of the high kings at the Hill of Tara, are also archaic, ancient and ascinating. The monuments of Newgrange, Dowth and Knowth share one great and glorious purpose  - to track time - by marking significant calendrical and astronomical events such as the solstices, equinoxes, moon standstills, cross-quarter days, and even precession of the equinoxes. Newgrange may have been used not only to mark Winter Solstice sunrise, but also full moon rise at certain times in the lunar cycle, and may have had an interesting connection with the swan constellation in ancient times.

Newgrange Sunrises click on this link for more beautiful photographs http://www.knowth.com/winter-solstice.htm

Newgrange aerial view

All photographs compliments of www.knowth.com
for more aerial photos - please see this link

 If you would like more information about Newgrange take a look at the Visitor Centers site at Knowth.

 

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