Solstice crowds dance and welcome the ‘new sun’ slouching behind clouds
CLOUDY skies may have caused some disappointment, but enthusiastic crowds gathered for the winter solstice at two of Ireland’s most famous megalithic tombs in the hope of catching the sight of the rising sun lighting up their chambers.
Spirits were high in Newgrange, in the Boyne Valley, where hundreds danced, despite the clouds preventing the rays of the low winter sun penetrating the burial chamber at sunrise on the shortest day of the year.
It is 50 years since archaeologist Dr Michael J O’Kelly discovered the ancient engineering and astrological alignment at Newgrange.
Those who gathered at Knockroe Passage Tomb, on the Kilkenny-Tipperary border, had more luck at sunrise, although dull skies in the afternoon meant there was no illumination at sunset. It may not be as big or as well known as Newgrange, but Knockroe is just as important.
Dr Muiris O’Suillivan, Professor Emeritus Archeaology, University College Dublin, who led the excavation of the site over a 25-year period, was among the hundreds who gathered at Knockroe yesterday.
He calls it the “Newgrange of the south”.
The Knockroe tomb, which dates back more than 5,000 years, is unique in that it aligns with both the rising and the setting sun on the winter solstice. Newgrange is only illuminated by the sunrise.