Winter Solstice at Newgrange

Winter Solstice at Newgrange

Winter Solstice at Newgrange draws people to the Boyne Valley each December. The days are short and the air is cold. Then the mound becomes the focus, as sunrise can light the passage and chamber.

Newgrange is more than 5,000 years old. Neolithic builders aligned it so a beam of sunlight can enter on mornings around the solstice. A roof-box over the entrance lets that light run the passage. It then reaches the inner room. The display lasts about 17 minutes from around 9 a.m.

People enjoying the Winter Solstice experience at Newgrange

People gather outside before dawn. Lottery winners go into the chamber. On a standard OPW tour at other times of year, visitors do enter the passage and chamber. A light show also explains the midwinter sun. However, cloud to the southeast can stop the live beam. Even so, the wait at first light still draws visitors from around the world.

Tour Guide Michael Fox in Newgrange for the Winter Solstice Sunrise

Winter Solstice at Newgrange has also inspired a song and a poem. Both are below. For the 1967 rediscovery of the beam, see Newgrange winter solstice.

Winter Solstice Song

Liz McNicholl is a singer-songwriter from the Boyne Valley in County Meath. She now lives in the United States. She wrote and recorded this song, “Winter Song.” The last verse features Newgrange and the winter solstice.

Winter Song lyrics

Winter time is here,
Snowflakes flurry down
Silence settles in
No one makes a sound, here

All is quiet now
Peace is all around, here

Ice patterns weaved, on the window pane
Pretty shapes I’ve never seen
Crystals shimmer like a dream, here

All is quiet now
Peace is all around, here

The sunlight’s peeping through, through the ancient tomb
The winter’s solstice has arrived
Newgrange is all alight, here

All is quiet now
Peace is all around, here

Winter days will end
The frost will soon be gone
Colors will return
Spring will sing it’s song, here

Winter Solstice Sunbeam in the passage, viewed from the outside

Winter Solstice Poem

A poem by Mary Mills, written in Dr. Sylvia Baer’s online Creative Writing: Poetry class, Gloucester County College, New Jersey.

Winter Solstice at Newgrange

Dark retreats before
the calculated caress
of sun’s brightness.

Winter’s hand pulls back
from a small ancient chamber;
light intensifies.

For a few minutes,
brilliance scatters kisses
before light recedes.

The night must return,
and we can draw light into
dark times if we try.

How the light enters

A roof-box sits above the entrance. It lets sunlight reach the chamber around 21 December. For several days before and after, a narrow beam can hit the chamber floor. As the sun climbs, the beam widens. Then it fills more of the room before it fades.

Rainbow over Newgrange at the Winter Solstice Sunrise

The builders raised Newgrange more than 5,000 years ago. So it is older than the pyramids at Giza and older than Stonehenge. They worked in the Stone Age, before metal tools. They likely marked the turn of the year. It may also have stood for life’s return after the longest night.

Winter Solstice Sunbeam inside Newgrange Megalithic Passage Tomb

Roof-box over the Newgrange entrance where the Winter Solstice Sunbeam enters the passage

You can visit Newgrange on a private tour in the Boyne Valley. Our guides explain the roof-box and the winter light. Then you walk the same mound that holds this midwinter story.

Newgrange Winter Solstice Archive

• 21st December 2025 Winter Solstice
• 19th December 2024 Winter Solstice
• 19th December 2023 Winter Solstice
• 20th December 2022 Winter Solstice
• 20th December 2020 Winter Solstice
• 18th December 2016 Winter Solstice
• 20th December 2015 Winter Solstice
• 19th December 2014 Winter Solstice
• 21st December 2013 Winter Solstice
• 18th December 2011 Winter Solstice
• 22nd December 2010 Winter Solstice
• 19th December 2010 Winter Solstice
• 18th December 2010 Winter Solstice
• 22nd December 2009 Winter Solstice
• 21st December 2009 Winter Solstice
• 21st December 2008 Winter Solstice
• 21st December 2007 Winter Solstice
• 22nd December 2006 Winter Solstice
• 21st December 2006 Winter Solstice
• 21st December 2005 Winter Solstice
• 20th December 2005 Winter Solstice
• 21st December 2004 Winter Solstice
• 19th December 2004 Winter Solstice
• 21st December 2003 Winter Solstice
• 22nd December 2002 Winter Solstice
• 21st December 2001 Winter Solstice

Visit Newgrange at the winter solstice with Boyne Valley Tours

Enjoy a private day tour from Dublin to the Boyne Valley. We tailor the itinerary to your interests and handle the driving and logistics. The OPW-guided visit from the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Center includes Newgrange and Knowth. Afterwards, continue to the Hill of Slane and the Hill of Tara. Because this is a private tour, you can choose other sites instead.

Book online now! Inquire now!