BRÚ NA BÓINNE

Knowth. Knowth is the site of a Neolithic corridor tomb, part of the spectacular Brú na Bóinne archaeological complex. Although not as famous as its neighbor Newgrange, just a short distance away, Knowth is a must-see site. Its visit promises a journey into the past, through the ancestral culture of Ireland.

The main corridor dolmen houses two burial chambers located back to back and at the end of two corridors of 34 and 40 m. The main tumulus is surrounded by 18 other corridor dolmens, of smaller size... What is most fascinating in this site, is the continuous succession of "dwellings", from the Neolithic period (from 3000 to 2000 BC) until the Norman occupation (from the 12th to the 14th century). Thus, from the Christian period, from the 1st to the 12th century, the top of the main tumulus was used as a base for housing: houses were built there. This passage, this geological layer giving a vertical reading of history (first a burial chamber, then a Christian and Norman dwelling) is not without leaving one wondering, all the more so as the engraved stones surrounding this main tumulus bear the imprints of these different periods: spirals, hollows, circles from the Neolithic period, up to figurative attempts at fish from the Christian era... While the site of Newgrange pays homage to the Sun, Knowth, with its lunar maps engraved in the stone, is dedicated to the Moon
Of the necropolis-sites of the Boyne Valley, Newgrange is certainly the most famous, the most visited and the most impressive. It is one of the most beautifulpassage tombs - a grave consisting of a long passage and a burial chamber, covered by a tumulus - in all of Western Europe. The dating (by carbon 14) of Newgrange places its construction around 3200 B.C., thus before the construction of the pyramids of Egypt.

Newgrange. When you arrive at the site, after a short minibus ride from the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre, a massive mound rises out of the rolling landscape of the Boyne like a wave of green earth. You are looking at the mythical tomb of Newgrange.

Surrounded by a circle of 97 monoliths, a long corridor of 19 meters leads to the three alcoves of the burial chamber where, according to current hypotheses, the ashes of four or five people were buried. The entrance to the corridor is defended by a spectacular monolithic stone (Entrance Stone), superbly engraved with spiral motifs, the meaning of which remains unexplained to this day. Inside, several stones, either hidden or visible, are engraved with simple patterns: triangles, rhombuses, spirals. The roof of the chamber (6 meters high) is admirably built to the point that there is no water infiltration thanks to gutters traced in the stone.
The mystery of the winter solstice. In the enclosure of the tomb chamber, a cavity allows a ray of light to pass through on December 21, which illuminates the corridor from a small opening at the top of the entrance and the chamber on that single day of the solstice. This discovery is due to Professor M. J. O'Kelly who undertook excavations at Newgrange between 1962 and 1975. But how to explain such an astronomical precision so many millennia ago? A mystery among many others in this intriguing valley around the Boyne...