Join us for this special archival edition of Amplify Archaeology Podcast, to hear the story of the Newgrange Solstice with Dr Jessica Smyth, Professor Gabriel Cooney, Clare Tuffy, Dr Robert Hensey and Professor Muiris O’Sullivan.

At this time of the year, as the Winter Solstice approaches, many people think of Newgrange and its solstice alignment. Newgrange is a world heritage site, a 5,000 year old passage tomb on the banks of the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland. Each year people gather around the tomb in celebration, while the lucky few lottery winners get to go inside to experience a truly magical event. As when the skies are clear at dawn, a golden beam of sunlight travels up the ancient passageway to illuminate the chamber.

Back in December 2020, a winter of covid restrictions and lockdowns all of those wonderful celebrations were cancelled. So I had the idea to try to tell the story of Newgrange and the experience of the solstice by interviewing the people who know the site best. We made a 5 part miniseries, each episode released in the days coming up to the solstice, featuring experts like Dr Jessica Smyth, Professor Gabriel Cooney, Dr Robert Hensey, Professor Muiris O’Sullivan, and Clare Tuffy who has experienced 30 years of solstices at Newgrange in her work for the OPW. 

This podcast takes clips from those episodes to give an overview of the significance of the Newgrange Solstice, and what it might all mean. But I do recommend digging into the individual episodes as this only just scratches the surface of a truly fascinating subject.

The Winter Solstice at Newgrange Podcast Miniseries by Amplify Archaeology

This episode features snippets from the five part series on Newgrange and the Winter Solstice.

• Professor Muiris O’Sullivan featured in Part 1.
• Dr. Jessica Smyth featured in Part 2.
• Clare Tuffy featured in Part 3.
• Dr. Robert Hensey featured in Part 4.
• Professor Gabriel Cooney featured in Part 5.

So do be sure to catch those when you can. I’d just like to thank Gabriel, Jessica, Clare, Robert and Muiris for taking the time to talk with me. I’d also like to thank my colleague Ruth Fitzpatrick for editing this podcast. And I especially want to thank all of you for joining me on Amplify Archaeology Podcast. We have some brilliant guests already lined up for 2023, so do make sure you’re subscribed and if the Christmas spirit is upon you, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify in particular. It really helps us to be found.

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• The beautiful image of light entering the chamber used as the header and in the gallery of this page is courtesy of Brian Morrison, Fáilte Ireland
• The Winter Solstice at Newgrange was live streamed back in 2020 (though there are sadly no plans to do so this year). You can watch 2020 back here (the first day was the best, though all three days were wonderful thanks to the narration of Clare Tuffy and Dr. Frank Prendergast).
• For details on the opening times and more information on the Visitor Centre at the Brú na Bóinne please see the OPW website.