Winter Solstice - Part 2- The best place to welcome the "rebirth" of the sun.

The best place to welcome the rebirth of the sun must surely be Newgrange in the Boyne Valley, County Meath in Ireland.

Newgrange is a 3,200 year old passage tomb built by Stone Age farmers. The actual circular mound is 76metres in diameter, and 12metres high. It covers an acre of ground. It was built during the Neolithic Period, which makes it older than both Stonehenge and the Giza and Egyptian pyramids.

Excited yet?

Although it was originally classed as a "passage tomb" by archaeologists, it is now recognised as an ancient temple....a place of astrological, spiritual, religious and ceremonial importance.

The mound itself is ringed by kerbstones which are engraved with celtic symbols. It's the best known monument within the Brú na Bóinne complex alongside similar passage tombs of Knowth and Dowth.

Inside the mound is a passage of 19 metres in length (this is approximately 1/3 of the way into the centre. At the end of this passage are three small chambers off a larger central chamber with an impressive high corbelled vaulted roof. Each of the three smaller Chambers has a large flat stone ("basin stone) where bones of the dead were likely deposited. The walls of the passage are made up of large stone slabs. 22 of these are on the western side, and 21 on the eastern side. These largely decorated carved slabs are around 1.5metres in height.

As this post is so long, I will post a Part 3 separately. It will be most interesting, I promise.

Drawing is my own. All of the photos are courtesy of Pixabay Images.