Winter Solstice, Newgrange, County Meath, Ireland

Winter solstice marked at Newgrange

A stream of sunlight passes through the window box and along the passage way leading into the burial chamber of Newgrange during the 2006 Winter Solstice. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

 

People are gathering at Newgrange, Co Meath this morning to mark the mid-winter solstice on the shortest day of the year.

 

The passage tomb at Newgrange, built over 5,000 ago, is unique as the rising sun on the morning of the solstice lights up the chamber deep inside the tomb.

Hundreds are expected at the tomb, although only a certain lucky few handpicked in advance will actually get into the chamber.

If the sunrise is visible, the chamber lights up as it was designed to do so by its neolithic builders.

The event can be watched live on the Office of Public Works’s Heritage Ireland web site at http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/