Brú na Bóinne
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How it came to be
People have lived at Brú na Bóinne, on the north bank of the River Boyne, for at least 6,000 years, and its passage tombs were built from about 3300 to 2900 BC. Around the three great tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth lie some forty more. The site holds Europe's largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art.
The Newgrange mound is 85 metres across and 12 metres high and contains about 200,000 tonnes of material. Its 19-metre passage is aligned on the winter solstice sunrise, whose light enters through a roofbox above the entrance for about 17 minutes. In Irish tradition the tombs were the dwellings of the god the Dagda and his son Aengus.
In 1699 labourers digging for stone for the landowner Charles Campbell found the entrance. Michael J. O'Kelly led the excavation from 1962 to 1975, and on 21 December 1967 he became the first person in modern times to see the solstice light inside. The site was inscribed in 1993, and each year 60 people chosen by lottery watch the solstice from the chamber.
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