Take a step back in time at Newgrange

I visited Newgrange several years ago on my first and only trip to Ireland. To say that I was astounded is an understatement.The re-enactment is wonderfully done. Someday I will return!

Oh my 9 trips to Ireland over the past 5 years, Newgrange was one of my most memorable experiences.....along with all the wonderful people in Ireland!! It is a very magical experience....

Was so impressed with my visit to Newgrange a wonderful experience.

PolinDeB: " Stepping back ... can ONLY be done at Tara" - and the ridiculous notion that our ancestors somehow began in 1843. - Only "I in 8"? ...where were all the others? - so your last sentence should be : " SOME of your ancestors, etc. ..." Honey, I share your love and agree it is a wonderful subject - but remember to keep it real! (No Leprechauns allowed!)

Stepping back in time to where your ancestors definitely stood can only be done at Tara. There 1 million Irish people gathered peacefully to ask for freedom in 1843. That's 1 in 8 Irish people at the time. Your ancestors were definitely there.

They forget to mention that they are destroying other as spectacular monuments as Tara's (about 20 miles from Newgrange) sister oak temple Lismullen is destroyed by the M3 motorway. The Irish UNESCO list including Tara is due in mid-April, let's make sure it gets there. www.tinyurl.com/GreenIreland

Well, 21st Dec dawns tomorrow in Ireland. The weather forecast is for a sunny morning at Newgrange, lucky buncha people who'll be there! Freezing cold too! Am looking forward to TV pics and stories about tomorrow at Newgrange....

(Cont'd fm below) I visited a place similar to Newgrange in the Mediterranean Sea island of Malta, much bigger but less attracting and also 5000 yrs old. ‘Tis a pity Malta doesn’t expose it more to tourists; its construction facing towards dawn's sunlight over the horizon at the sea’s edge is as fascinating as Newgrange's sunrise over that hill. Some extraordinary scientists, mathematicians or plain sun-movement students they must have been way back then to construct these things so precisely! Pity that Dara didn’t mention Knowth and Dowth, mounds neighbouring Newgrange that are also tuned in a triangular formation to the sunrise effect at newgrange. My own favourite is Knowth, more mounds and some extraordinary art to be seen on Ireland’s granite stones there. Dowth has not been fully excavated yet for all to see but you can visit it and see the relationship it has with Knowth and Newgrange. There have been recent references to the possibility that an old stone structure at the mouth of the River Boyne in Mornington, known as the Lady’s Finger, some good miles away from Newgrange, may be tied into sunrise and Newgrange itself on 21st Dec.

I enjoyed this article by Dara – a Step back in Time is so right. When my American friends come to visit Ireland for a first time, I always make a point of bringing every one of them to Newgrange when possible. It is just so amazing and each time I go there with visitors - and there have been many - I feel as if it’s the first time I’ve been there, it’s just such a beautiful experience seeing it and being in the quiet surrounding farmland countryside by the banks of the flowing River Boyne. The use of artificial lighting to replicate the creeping sunlight event is quite affecting, everyone in the chamber at Newgrange goes into a hush of astonishment. I’ve never bothered to go on the list to be there on 21st December, I know how unpredictable the Irish weather is – a December’s morning fog or perhaps a belt of cloud passing over Newgrange as the sun rises over that hill across the river beyond, only for it to disappear just minutes after the crucial moments of sunrise, is not worth the height of one’s expectations. ‘Twud be *blerghing* frustrating! (more...)