Newgrange

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NEWGRANGE
The Palace of the Boyne

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It seems somewhat paradoxical that the further back in time we look, the more advanced and imposing the structures become. Perhaps this place was, indeed, used as a tomb for three of the High Kings of Tara, the leaders of the Tuatha Dé Dannan. So who were these people, the Tuatha Dé? How could they have built this place with such accuracy so as to align the roof box with such precision to catch the rays of the rising Sun on the Winter Solstice? And where did they come from? Why did they ever leave their original home? And, most importantly, why were they attributed such high status amongst the original Irish inhabitants?

Built in 3,100 B.C., the great white edifice known as Newgrange lies above the river Boyne, just to the east of Slane. In all there are thousands of stone age monuments and structures surviving in Ireland such as this one, but this "Palace by the Boyne" is by far the grandest. During pagan times, this site was viewed with awe, indeed as a Palace of the Gods. Lore called Newgrange the residence of Aengus, the great god of love. These sites were associated with the Tuatha Dé Dannan, the race of the goddess Danu.

Figure 3: Example of the stones used in the stone circle forming a ring around the edifice of Newgrange. Click on image for a closeup of the walls.

Figure 1: Newgrange consists not only of this fantastic building, but also a stone circle surrounding it.

Figure 6: View from underneath the roofbox, looking down the passage to the so-called 'tomb' at the centre of the building. Click on image for a view of the inside of this 'tomb'.

Figure 7: View of the Sun during the Winter Solstice, shining down the passageway.

Figure 6: View of the roofbox from the outside of the building. The lintel of the doorway can be seen at the bottom of the image.

Figure 2: Aerial view of the edifice. The remaining stones that formed the circle around the building can be seen at the bottom of the image.

Figure 5: Aerial plan of the inner structure of the building, showing the passageway, and the three-chambered cruciform 'tomb'.

It consists of a vast stone and turf mound about 85 metres in diametre and 13.5 metres high, containing a passage leading to a so-called burial chamber. Outside the base, 12 out of the original estimated 38 large boulders up to 2.4 metres high form a ring of about 104 metres in diametre. The stone circle forms a tight ring around the original structure. The base of the mound is retained by no less than 97 large stones, lying horizontally, many of which bear beautifully carved designs of spirals, lozenges, zigzags, and other symbols. The most famous of these is the stone marking the entrance (see figure 4), with carvings of a triple spiral, double spirals, concentric semi-circles, and lozenges similar to those found in Brittany (France), at Gavrinis.

Above the entrance passage is a 'roof-box', seen in figure 6, which precisely aligns with the rising sun at the winter solstice of 21 December, so that the rays touch the ground at the very centre of the tomb for about 20 minutes. The precision required to align this small 'box' is unfathomable, and surely could not have been achieved by people that supposedly hadn't even discovered the wheel.

Many of the upright stones along the walls of the 19 metre passage, which follows the rise of the hill, are richly decorated in the same manner as the Entrance Stone, as in figure 4.

The cruciform chamber (see figure 5) inside the mound measures 6.5 x 6.2 metres, has three recesses, and is topped by a magnificent corbelled roof, reaching to a height of 6 metres above the floor. In the recesses are three massive stone basins which presumably had some ritual use. Excavations in the central chamber produced the remains of two burials and at least three cremated bodies as well as seven marbles, four pendants, two beads, a flint flake, a bone chisel, and fragments of several bone pins and points.

It is thought that within the three massive grantie basins in each chamber once held the ashes of three of the High Kings of Tara. These people surely must have been amongst the most important people of this time.

Figure 4: The stone marking the entrance of Newgrange. Click for a larger image.

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