In the first part of a miniseries focusing on the Winter Solstice at Newgrange, Neil is joined by Professor Muiris O’Sullivan, who discusses the landscapes of Neolithic Ireland, belief and meaning, art and darkness.

The great passage tomb of Newgrange in the Boyne Valley of County Meath, is one of Ireland’s most iconic monuments. Today it is a World Heritage Site, and (on a normal year) it is one of our most visited monuments, with people from all over the world travelling to see this marvel of Neolithic engineering and belief. As the Winter Solstice is upon us, Newgrange takes on even more meaning, as it is aligned with the mid-winter solstice. On a clear dawn on the 20th, 21st and 22nd December, a beam of light from the rising sun travels up the passageway to illuminate the chamber. Each year people gather in great numbers around the monument to celebrate this phenomenon, and lucky lottery winners get the ultimate prize of being inside the chamber to witness it first hand. However, this year, if it shines the light will pass unseen by human eyes. The pandemic that has taken so much, has also meant that the gathering for 2020 has been cancelled.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to discuss Newgrange with some of the experts who know the site intimately. As a way of casting another kind of light on our iconic monument. This is the first episode of a miniseries focusing on Newgrange. In this edition Neil was joined by Professor Muiris O’Sullivan, one of the legends of Irish archaeology. Muiris has spent a lifetime studying and writing about Irish archaeology. He has a particular interest in megalithic art, and in the podcast we discuss many aspects of Newgrange, the people who built it, and its meaning today. We also discuss Knockroe Passage Tomb in County Kilkenny, another monument that shares a mid-winter solstice alignment, and that Muiris excavated in the 1990s.

Given the restrictions we recorded the discussion over Zoom, so please forgive the audio quality if it is a bit off. I do hope you’ll stay with us as it’s a broad ranging discussion where we hear some fascinating personal reflections on megalithic tombs, darkness, art and meanings.

Newgrange Winter Solstice Part 1 – Show Notes

• 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
• Professor Muiris O’Sullivan has written extensively on megalithic art, and a new publication is currently in the works. We’ll certainly share it here as soon as it is available so do check back soon!
• I highly recommend the excellent Wordwell Publication Antiquities of Rural Ireland for a wonderful overview of all periods of Irish archaeology.
• The Winter Solstice at Newgrange is being livestreamed this year, you can watch it here.
• For details on the opening times and more information on the Visitor Centre at the Brú na Bóinne please see the OPW website.
• Dr. Jessica Smyth features in Part 2 of our Newgrange and the Winter Solstice Series. You can hear that here.
• You can hear Part 3 of our Newgrange and the Winter Solstice Series with Clare Tuffy here.
• Part 4 of our Newgrange and the Winter Solstice Series featured Dr. Robert Hensey, and you can hear that here.

Amplify Archaeology Podcast

This is the first part of a five episode miniseries focusing on Newgrange, the Winter Solstice and Neolithic Ireland. Please subscribe to Amplify Archaeology Podcast on your favourite platform to ensure you don’t miss a thing. If you leave us a review it can really help us to be found, so we’d be very grateful if you’d consider sharing the podcast.