LAST UPDATE | 21 Dec 2023

CROWDS WERE TREATED to a bit of sunlight at Newgrange this morning for the winter solstice sunrise. 

The winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon that marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice occurs on 21 or 22 December, when the sun shines directly over the tropic of Capricorn.

At sunrise on the shortest day of the year, for 17 minutes, direct sunlight can enter the Newgrange monument, not through the doorway, but through the specially contrived small opening above the entrance known as the roof box, to illuminate the chamber.

Only those who have secured a ticket through the lottery system could attend. 

The Office of Public Works (OPW) livestreamed the solstice at Newgrange from 8.40am. 

Excitement is building🤞📷Ailbhe#Newgrange #NewgrangeSolstice #BrunaBoinne pic.twitter.com/q8qqgJRSde

— Brú na Bóinne - Newgrange and Knowth (@brunaboinneOPW) December 21, 2023

📷 Ailbhe, Clare, Catherine #Newgrange #NewgrangeSolstice #BrunaBoinne pic.twitter.com/WqtwSjqPb7

— Brú na Bóinne - Newgrange and Knowth (@brunaboinneOPW) December 21, 2023

Some sunlight managed to break through the clouds this morning and the chamber lit up briefly.

Meanwhile, a new Irish documentary crew have discovered evidence that a second chamber may exist in the prehistoric Newgrange monument.

After a nine-day survey of the site in 2022, a team of researchers believe they may have made the biggest discovery about the Co Meath cairn in over fifty years.

Rún na Bóinne (Secret of the Boyne), which aired last night on TG4, follows a geophysics team from Ireland and Slovakia carrying out non-invasive tests to find out more about the site’s architecture and history.

The results indicate that spaces in the cairn that look like collapsed cavities could have once been extra chambers, similar to the existing chamber, which the cavities are oddly in alignment with.