Ireland: Brug Na Boine or Newgrange

Behold the Sidh before your eyes
It is manifest to you that it is a king's mansion
Which was built by the firm Dadga
It was a wonder, a court, an admirable hill

(traditional Irish poet, Mac Nia
Book of Ballymote)

The Visitor Center at Newgrange/Brug na Boine: Notice how it was constructed to blend in with the surrounding scenery.


A Closer View of The Visitor Center


The Entrance to Newgrange


Branwenn at Newgrange-just to prove I was really here--LOL:):)


The much photographed carved stone in front of Newgrange.


Branwenn standing in front of immense Celtic cross in the Newgrange Visitor's Center.

Brug na Boine or Brugh-na-Boyne, known today as Newgrange, is the most famous “fairy hill” in Ireland. These passages were called sidhe and were actually barrows or hillocks, with square doorways decorated with Celtic spirals patterns. These were the doorways that, according to legend, led into the Celtic Elysium, an underground land of unending splendor and delight. One description of Brugh na Boine, the largest of these hillforts, which the son of the Dagda, Angus Mac Og, craftily cheated his father out of having as his own residence, had a wonderful party-all-the-time description that will delight many of us with Celtic blood. “There were apple trees always in fruit, one pig alive and another ready roasted, and the supply of ale never failed.”

Newgrange is located about five Irish miles from Drogheda. It was thought to have been built even before the pyramids in Egypt. On the banks of the Boyne River are 17 barrows—three of which are well known. These are Knowth, Dowth and the largest of the three, Newgrange. Once they were mythologised to be the homes of the Celtic Gods, now they serve as their barrows or tombs. Newgrange is the largest and best preserved. It is over 300 feet in diameter and 70 feet high. The grassy top forms an earthen platform 120 feet across. All three of these barrows were ransacked by the Danes in the ninth century.

Once through the doorway, you enter a long narrow passage of about 60 feet and not much higher than six feet. Most have to duck in places where the floor rises and the ceiling does not keep pace with the incline. The passage goes uphill at a slight grade and gradually widens and opens into a central chamber with a cone-shaped dome of about 20 feet. On both sides of the chamber is a recess containing a shallow oval basin. The recesses are decorated with many of the spiral shapes that have become associated with the ancient Celts, but it is thought that Newgrange was built by a prehistoric people that inhabited Ireland centuries before the Celts.

Newgrange is one of the most amazing sites of all of my travels to different sacred archaeological sites around the world. This megalithic passage tomb covers over an acre and was constructed around 3200 B.C. Buried for centuries, the mound was rediscovered in 1699 and was restored starting in 1962. At the winter solstice, the rising sun shines down a long passage and lights up a cross-shaped chamber. Viewing winter solstice at this amazing site has a waiting list which is chosen by lots and booked ahead for years.

A wonderful "live" webcast of the 2007 winter solstice at was put out by the The Office of Public Works An archive of this event is now available below. To view you will need to have Windows Media Player. The following link will open a pop-up window to display the webcast. If you have problems opening this link, please ensure that you have pop-ups enabled.

http://www.servecast.com/opw/211207/archive150.html