At the Newgrange winter solstice, roughly 18 to 23 December, the rising sun shines through a small roof-box above the tomb entrance. The beam runs up the 19-metre passage and lights the chamber for up to 17 minutes, weather permitting. Newgrange was built about 3200 BC. Places inside are won in a free OPW lottery, and the OPW has streamed the sunrise free online in recent years.
Every December, a handful of people stand in a dark stone chamber in Co. Meath and wait for the sun. If the clouds behave, a thin line of light creeps up the passage floor and fills the room.
The tomb has been lined up for that moment for over 5,000 years. Irish weather has been getting in the way for just as long.
Here’s the full guide: what happens, how old Newgrange is, how the lottery works and how to watch from wherever you are.
Jump to:
- What happens at Newgrange on the winter solstice
- How old is Newgrange?
- The roof-box and 21 December 1967
- The kerbstones and the triple spiral
- Knowth, Dowth and the UNESCO listing
- The solstice lottery
- How to watch the live stream
- Can you just turn up on solstice morning?
- Visiting the rest of the year
- The solstice in Irish tradition, and Loughcrew
- FAQ
What happens at Newgrange on the winter solstice
Newgrange is a passage tomb. A stone passage about 19 metres long runs from the entrance into a chamber at the heart of a great mound.
The passage faces south-east, towards the midwinter sunrise. Above the doorway is a small, carefully built opening called the roof-box.
On the solstice mornings, the sun comes in through the roof-box, not the door. That’s according to the Office of Public Works (OPW), which runs the site.
The beam reaches up to 19 metres along the passage floor. As the sun climbs, it widens and lights the whole chamber. After about 17 minutes it slides back down the passage and is gone.
Which days, and for how long?
It isn’t only 21 December. The OPW’s education pack says it can happen on any morning from 18 to 23 December. The official lottery mornings are 19 to 23 December.
The light lasts “up to 17 minutes depending on weather conditions”, as Heritage Ireland puts it. No sun, no show.
In 2024 the sky was clear and the light reached the chamber. In 2025 the Irish Times said the sun didn’t fully light the chamber in time, though it brightened the room. The OPW said the light still came in through the roof-box.
Here’s an odd detail. Professor Tom Ray of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies told the Irish Times in 2013 that slow changes in the Earth’s orbit matter here. The beam now arrives about 10 minutes after sunrise, whereas the builders caught the very first rays.
| Newgrange at a glance | Figure |
|---|---|
| Built | About 3200 BC |
| Passage length | About 19 m (62 ft) |
| Light in the chamber | Up to 17 minutes |
| Mornings | Roughly 18 to 23 December |
| Kerbstones | 97 (OPW count) |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 1993 |
How old is Newgrange?
Newgrange was built by Stone Age farmers about 3200 BC, say the OPW and Britannica. That makes it over 5,000 years old.
Older than Stonehenge and the pyramids?
Yes, going by Britannica’s dates. Stonehenge was built in stages between 3000 and 1520 BC. The Great Pyramid of Giza was finished in the early 25th century BC.
So Newgrange is several centuries older than both Stonehenge’s great stone circle and the Great Pyramid.
Newgrange from the air, with its white quartz front wall and the kerbstones around the mound
The mound is about 85 metres across, says Britannica. The OPW says the chamber is cross-shaped, under a corbelled stone roof about 6 metres high.
The OPW says the white quartz came from the Wicklow Mountains, and the rounded granite boulders from the shore of Dundalk Bay. Nobody had a lorry.
The roof-box and 21 December 1967
There was an old local belief that the sun lit up the tomb at midwinter. Nobody alive had seen it.
Then came Professor Michael J. O’Kelly of University College Cork. He excavated Newgrange for the OPW from 1962 to 1975.
According to RTÉ’s Brainstorm, he uncovered the roof-box in 1963 and finished rebuilding it in 1966.
On 21 December 1967, O’Kelly stood in the chamber to test his idea. The sun came through. The National Museum says he and his team were the first to see it since prehistoric times.
He didn’t rush to the papers. RTÉ says it wasn’t made public until a low-key OPW report in 1971. Not many people would sit on news like that for four years.
Is the roof-box original? In 2016 the Irish Times reported archaeologist Michael Gibbons’s view that the roof-box was a 1960s fabrication. Dr Robert Hensey, author of First Light, disputed that.
The kerbstones and the triple spiral
A ring of 97 large kerbstones runs around the base of the mound, by the OPW’s count. Many are carved.
The most famous is the entrance stone, right in front of the door. Heritage Ireland describes a large triple spiral with double loops on its left side.
Another triple spiral is carved inside the tomb. Heritage Ireland calls it a triskele, the same triple spiral you’ll see on so much Irish jewellery today. It is far older than Celtic art, though.
Nobody knows what the spirals meant to the people who carved them. Suns and seasons are popular guesses. They remain guesses.
The OPW says Brú na Bóinne holds around 60% of all Western European passage tomb art. For the later story of these shapes, see my guide to Celtic symbols.
Knowth, Dowth and the UNESCO listing
Newgrange is one of three great mounds in a bend of the River Boyne, together called Brú na Bóinne.
Knowth holds two separate passage tombs facing roughly east and west. World Heritage Ireland says it has the largest collection of megalithic art in Western Europe. You can visit on a tour, but not the chambers.
Dowth has a nice twist. Dowth South faces south-west, towards the winter solstice sunset. The OPW says its evening light can last about an hour. Dowth isn’t on the visitor centre tours.
UNESCO made Brú na Bóinne a World Heritage Site in 1993. It calls it Europe’s largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art.
The Newgrange solstice lottery: how to get inside
The chamber is small, so the OPW hands out solstice places by free lottery.
How it worked in 2025
- Entry was online for the first time, and over 16,000 entries came in.
- 38 winners were drawn, each allowed to bring one guest.
- Each pair went in on one of the mornings from 19 to 23 December.
- Children from Donore, Knockcommon and Slane national schools made the draw.
- Winners came from as far as California, New York and Taiwan.
You’ll often read that 30,000 people apply every year. That figure is old.
The 2026 lottery
Entry is at solsticelottery.ie, the OPW’s official form. It’s online only, one entry per email address. Applicants must be over 10, and winners show photo ID.
Entries for 2026 closed at midnight Irish time on 30 September 2026. Anything sent now goes into the 2027 draw.
The draw usually happens in early October, so 2026 winners may already have been told. Check Heritage Ireland’s solstice page for news.
How to watch the Newgrange solstice live stream
For the rest of us, there’s the live stream. The OPW has streamed the sunrise from inside the chamber in recent years, free.
In 2025, RTÉ broadcast live from Newgrange on Sunday 21 December from 8.40am Irish time. It went out on RTÉ Player, gov.ie/opw and the OPW’s YouTube channel.
The OPW even suggested hosting coffee mornings to watch, using #ShareTheSolstice and #NewgrangeSolstice.
| Place | Local start of the 2025 stream |
|---|---|
| Ireland and UK | 8.40am |
| New York, Boston | 3.40am |
| Los Angeles | 12.40am |
| Sydney | 7.40pm |
American readers, that’s a very early coffee morning. The recording is there afterwards if you’d rather sleep.
The 2026 stream hasn’t been announced yet. The 2025 link came out on 3 December. Watch gov.ie/opw, heritageireland.ie and @opwireland on social media from late November.
Recordings from 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024 are on the OPW’s YouTube channel. You can rewatch the 2025 broadcast on the OPW’s YouTube channel.
Can you just turn up on solstice morning?
You can’t get into the chamber at sunrise without a lottery place. But you can stand outside. The Irish Times counted around 2,000 people there in 2025.
In 2025 the visitor centre was free to enter until 8.30am on 19 to 23 December, with a free shuttle bus. There’s no car park at the monument, and roads were closed on 20 and 21 December.
Non-winners could queue and go in afterwards in small groups. Times change each year, so check heritageireland.ie before you set out.
Visiting Newgrange the rest of the year
You can stand in that chamber on most days of the year. You just won’t see the sun in it.
Every visit starts at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre in Donore, Co. Meath. A shuttle bus takes you to the monuments, on guided tours only. Heritage Ireland is blunt: “Do not go directly to the monuments as you will not gain entry.”
- Book ahead. Every visitor, infants included, needs a ticket.
- No third-party sellers are authorised, and the OPW warns about fake look-alike sites.
- Tickets go on sale 30 days ahead from April to 1 November, and 7 days ahead in winter.
- No photos in the passage or chamber, which is low and narrow.
- The sites are outdoors with no shelter. Bring a coat. This is Meath.
From 2 November to 28 February there’s one tour, which includes the chamber. Winter opening is 9am to 4.15pm. It’s closed 24 to 27 December and 1 January. For prices, see Heritage Ireland.
The solstice in Irish tradition, and Loughcrew
In Irish mythology Newgrange was An Brug, home of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The National Museum tells how the Dagda fathered Aengus with Boann, goddess of the Boyne. Meet more of that cast among the Irish mythological creatures.
Why point a tomb at the midwinter sun? World Heritage Ireland suggests the solstice may have marked a new year, a sign of renewal. Nobody can prove it either way.
Ireland still marks midwinter in its own ways. See Irish New Year traditions and Christmas in Ireland.
Newgrange isn’t Meath’s only sun-lit tomb. Heritage Ireland says Cairn T at Loughcrew, near Oldcastle, is aligned to sunrise at the spring and autumn equinoxes. The inside of Cairn T is closed for conservation at present, so check heritageireland.ie before you go.
Newgrange solstice FAQ
What happens at Newgrange on the winter solstice?
At sunrise, light enters through the roof-box above the door. It runs up the passage and lights the chamber for up to 17 minutes, if the sky is clear.
What days does the sun shine into Newgrange?
Roughly 18 to 23 December, with 19 to 23 December the official lottery mornings. Cloud can wipe out any of them.
What time is the Newgrange solstice live stream?
In 2025 it began at 8.40am Irish time on 21 December. The 2026 details are usually announced in December. In 2025 the link came out on 3 December.
How do I enter the Newgrange solstice lottery?
Online at solsticelottery.ie. Entries for 2026 closed on 30 September, so new entries go into the 2027 draw.
How old is Newgrange?
About 5,200 years. It was built around 3200 BC, several centuries before Stonehenge’s stone circle and the Great Pyramid.
Can you go inside Newgrange in winter?
Yes, on a guided tour booked through the visitor centre. At solstice sunrise, though, the chamber is for lottery winners only.
More Irish reading
- The triskele: the Celtic triple spiral explained
- Celtic symbols and their meanings
- Irish mythological creatures
- Irish New Year traditions
- Christmas in Ireland
- Facts about Ireland
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