The story of Newgrange

Picture dawn on the winter solstice. As the sun rises, its light slips through a small 'roofbox' above the entrance and floods the inner chamber of Newgrange. The tomb is aligned for exactly this moment, and it was built around 3100 BC, which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids.

Inside the great circular mound, a stone passage leads to a cross-shaped chamber, where burnt and unburnt human bones were found. The striking façade is made mostly of white quartz cobblestones, ringed by engraved kerbstones, and some of the material came from as far as the Mournes and the Wicklow Mountains. There is no agreement on its purpose, but it is believed to have had religious significance.

In Irish mythology it was a dwelling of the deities, especially the Dagda and his son Aengus. The front you see today was rebuilt by archaeologist Michael O'Kelly, who led excavations here from 1962 to 1975, and his reconstruction remains controversial.