BRÚ NA BÓINNE
Brú na Bóinne, Palace of the Boyne
Donore, County Meath

Brú na Bóinne mean Palace of the Boyne in Irish and is one of two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ireland. The other is Skillig Michael off the coast of County Kerry. It's also one of the largest and most important prehistoric megalithic sites in all of Europe.

This site is a complex collection of Neolithic chamber tombs, standing stones, hedges and prehistoric enclosures that date back as early as 35BC. This site is older than the pyramids of Egypt and was built with sophisticated knowledge of science and astronomy.

The location is known as the Bend of the Boyne, referring to the River Boyne where the site is located, and was the site of the famous Battle of the Boyne in 1690, a political, religious and familiar war between Charles II, a Catholic, and William III, also known as William of Orange, a Protestant.

Brú na Bóinne covers 780 hectares, about 1927.4 acres. It contains about forty passage graves, as well as other historical features of note. Most of the monuments are on the north side of the River Boyne. The most well-known of them include the tomb at Newgrange, as well as Knowth and Dowth, which are pronounced with an "ow" like "cow" with a TH on the end. The K is silent in Knowth. Each of these three tombs have significant collections of megalithic art in the form of stonework. Each tomb also stands on a ridge on the bend in the river.

There have been numerous other tombs and sites of significance along the bend in the river and nearby, but the main focus's of interest at Brú na Bóinne are the three above mentioned tombs.

Newgrange

The tomb at Newgrange was originally built between 3300-2900BC, which means it's over 5000 years old! Carbon dating shows this tomb is at least 500 years older than the Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt. It also predates Stonehenge by about 1000 years. The site focused on ceremonial activity.

The origins of tomb at Newgrange are mysterious but it has grown to become the most significant passage tomb in the world. Summer and Winter Solstices were practiced here by the ancient Druids and are still observed today for the benefit of tourists and those practicing the old religions.

Legend say that the Kings of Ireland were buried here but the tomb at Newgrange predates that time in Ireland’s history, when the country was ruled by Irish Kings. It’s unclear exactly how old this site is but it's amazing that after the fall of the Celts this site remained mainly untouched until its rediscovery in the 1960’s. At that time professional archaeologists were brought in to determine what the site was used for and who lived in the area. It was then that it was discovered the connections of the site to the solstices. If the dates of construction are correct that would make Newgrange the oldest observatory in the world!

Newgrange is not an Irish name for this tomb, per say, but the name of an old estate in the area called the Grange. When these lands around this historical site were acquired it then became the “new Grange”. And over time the name of Newgrange stuck.

Points of Interest:

• The mound covers a full acre of land,
• It was constructed from over 200,000 tons of stone and earth,
• It stands 12 meters high,
• Is oblong shaped at 79x85 meters in diameter,
• The passage is 19 meters long,
• The corbelled roof is six meters high and is waterproof even after 5000 years!
• The chamber itself is cross shaped and only twice a year the inner chamber sees light, but only for about 15 minutes each solstice. As well, the weight of the structure has sunk in depth over the centuries so the original astral calculations would have differed then than from today but is still amazingly very close to accurate.

One of the most prominent features of this site is the magnificent engraved stone slab, also called a kerbstone) at the entrance to the tomb. The design includes a triple spiral motif called a triskel, and several other independent spirals. This design was repeated on stones in the passage way and inside the main chamber. The triskel, also called triskelian, is most often seen on the Isle of Man, as well as in Sicily and other passage tombs on Anglesey in North Wales.

Once a year on 21 December, Winter Solstice, the sun shines through a roofbox above the chamber entrance and light illuminates the length of the passage to the main chamber for 17 minutes. Originally it was thought this was a coincidence, but the alignment is too precise for that. The first person to observe the event was Professor M.J. O'Kelly in 1967. The event starts four minutes after sunrise. When calculations of the Earth 5000 years ago were made, it's expected that the event actually began precisely at sunrise. Solar alignments at Newgrange are very precise and compared to similar phenomena at other passage tombs, such as Dowth on this site, as well as Maes Howe on the Orkney Islands in Scotland.

Today, entrance into the tomb to observe the solstice is limited to a select few. At one time, the waiting list was almost ten years long! Nowadays, observers include local and national officials, and a handful of invited guests, who are selected on a lottery system. However, visitors to the site can experience what the solstice is like. At the end of each tour, visitors are led to the main chamber where all of the interior lights are turned off. A light at the roofbox is turned on to light the chamber similarly as the sun at Winter Solstice.

The uses of this tomb seems to have been many. While the Winter Solstice was observed here and it's thought the site was used in astronomical observations, the site was also used as a burial tomb. Excavations revealed the cremated remains of at least five adults. It seems the sun formed an important part of the religious beliefs of the Neolithic people who built the tomb. This included 37 standing stones that encircled the tomb, 12 of which remain today. Interestingly, the standing stones predate the tomb, which means the stone circle was constructed about 1000 years before the tomb, making it one of the oldest stone circles in the world.

In Irish mythology, Newgrange was one of the sidhe, or fairy-mounds, where the Tuatha Dé Danann lived. It was built by the god Dagda, but his son Oengus later tricked him out of it. It is named for the goddess Boann, the mother of Aengus, who is also credited with the creation of the River Boyne. According to some versions of the story, the hero Cúchulainn was conceived there. However, most of the mythical cycles associated with Newgrange date from the Celtic era of Irish history and mythology. The monument was already in existence for well over 2,000 years before the Celtic era.
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Knowth

Cnobha in Irish — The site includes the Knowth tomb and 17 smaller satellite tombs, making this the largest of the passage tombs within the Brú na Bóinne complex. For the sake of these notes, we're concentrating on the main tomb. This is a large mound of about 1.25 acres in diameter. It contains two passages on an east-west line. It's encircled by 127 kerbstones, three of which are missing and four that are badly damaged. The two passages are independent of each other (they don't meet) and lead to separate burial chambers. There are three recesses and basins stones into which cremated human remains were placed.
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One of the recesses is larger and more elaborately decorated with Megalithic art. It's unknown why passage tombs were to intricately designed.

Knowth contains more than one-third of the total number of all Megalithic art in all Western Europe. There are over 200 decorated stones here. Typical designs include spirals, lozenges and serpentiforms, as well as crescent shapes. This art is known as "hidden art" as it was carved into the backs of the stones.

There is some evidence of late Neolithic and Bronze Age activity at this location. Excavations revealed the existence of a grooved ware timber circle located near the entrance of the eastern passage.

The hill at Knowth fell into disrepair and the mound slipped, causing the entrances of both passages to collapse and be covered. This could be due to when the Normans used Knowth as a motte in the 12th century. While the site was mainly unused for nearly two thousand years, some 35 cist graves were discovered during excavations that date back to Celtic times. Most of those discovered were women! One grave of interest contained the bodies of two beheaded men who were buried together with a gaming set.

By the late Iron Age/early Christian period, the area had become a habitational site. The mound had become a hill fort with an encircling ditch and souterrains, tunnels used for storage, nearby. Entrances to the mount may have been discovered, as there is evidence of early Christian graffiti on stones in the eastern chamber. There are four names carved in ogham. There was also an attempt to move the basin stone, but was abandoned in the passage because it got stuck. At this time, Knowth had become a significant political site and had become the capital of the Kingdom of North Brega.

It was after a brief battle with the Normans during the Norman Invasion of Ireland (1169–1175) that Knowth fell into the hands of Mellifont Abbey who used the site as a farm. Stone walls were built across the top of the mound and stone buildings built within the walls. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the site was mainly used for growing crops until it was purchased by the State in 1939.

Because of Knowth's passages east-west orientation, it's thought that this site was also used for astronomical purposes, focusing on Spring and Summer equinoxes. Unfortunately, there is no alignment today, mainly due to the extent of destruction over the years.

There was a brief excavation of the site in 1941 by Professor Macallister, but full scale excavations didn't begin until 1962, which were undertaken in Professor George Eogan of University College Dublin (UCD). The entrance to the western passage was discovered in 1967 and the eastern passage in 1968. Since that time, even more has been discovered about the site.
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Dowth

Dubhadh in Irish — This is the third of the big tombs that has been excavated in the Boyne Valley and the oldest. Of the three tombs, Dowth is the least developed. Not because it hasn't been excavated, but because the passage is much lower than at Newgrange and Knowth, and because the decoration is poorer. The tomb was partly excavated in 1847. Some of those finding indicate that it had been plundered by the Vikings.

The mound is about 90 meters in diameter and 15 meter high. It's surrounded by kerbstones, some of which are decorated. Some quartz was found around the outside of the kerbing, which indicated the tomb was

surrounded in glittering white, as at Newgrange. Three stone-lined passages lead into the mount from the west. Also like Newgrange, the passage at Dowth ends in a cruciform (cross shape) chamber with a lintelled roof. Several orthostats (upright stones) and the chamber were decorated similarly to Newgrange and Knowth, with spirals, chevrons, lozenges and rayed circles. There is a single stone basin in the middle of the cruciform, though shows extreme wear after 5000 years.

Until recently, the tomb was only reached by climbing down a ladder within an iron cage then crawling over loose stones. Today, access to the tomb is restricted.

An interesting discovery is with a cup-marked kerbstone. It's decorated with a spiral and a flower-like design. It marks the entrance to a second, smaller tomb within the cruciform. At the entrance to the tomb is an early medieval souterrain.

Dowth shares a special solar celebration with Newgrange in that during the Winter Solstice the sun would have shone into the chamber, the rays reaching to the back of the chamber to illuminate three stones. During the evenings from November to February, late afternoon rays reach into the passage and then to the chamber of Dowth South.

~ Pay attraction, guided tour only, via the visitor's center or by private tour
~ Parking available at the visitor's center
~ Moderately accessible, no access for chairs in the tomb, access to the site by foot or the center's shuttle bus

http://www.knowth.com
http://www.heritageireland.ie