Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The superb
interpretive centre
, whose spiral design echoes that of Newgrange, features an ex-
cellent series of interactive exhibits on all aspects of pre-Celtic history, including a full-
scale replica of the burial chamber at Newgrange. There's a good film introducing the
complex, a decent
cafe
(dishes €4.50-12;
)
and a bookshop.
breakfast & lunch;
Newgrange
The star attraction is
Newgrange
, with its white round stone walls topped by a grass dome.
Just the size is impressive - 80m in diameter and 13m high - but underneath it gets even
better: here lies the finest Stone Age passage tomb in Ireland, and one of the most remark-
able prehistoric sites in Europe. It dates from around 3200 BC, predating the pyramids by
some six centuries.
No one is quite sure of its original purpose. It could have been a burial place for kings
or a centre for ritual - although the tomb's precise alignment with the sun at the time of
the winter solstice also suggests it was designed to act as a calendar. Over time, New-
grange, like Dowth and Knowth, deteriorated and was at one stage even used as a quarry.
The site was extensively restored in 1962 and again in 1975.
A superbly carved
kerbstone
with double and triple spirals guards the tomb's main en-
trance, but the area has been reconstructed so that tourists don't have to clamber in over it.
Above the entrance is a slit, or roof box, which lets light in. Another beautifully decorated
kerbstone stands at the exact opposite side of the mound. Some experts say that a
ring of
standing stones
encircled the mound, forming a great circle about 100m in diameter, but only
12 of these stones remain, with traces of others below ground level.
Holding the whole structure together are the 97 boulders of the
kerb ring
, designed to
stop the mound from collapsing outwards. Eleven of these are decorated with motifs sim-
ilar to those on the main entrance stone, although only three have extensive carvings.
The white quartzite that decorates the tomb was originally obtained from Wicklow,
70km to the south - in an age before horse and wheel, it was transported by sea and then
up the River Boyne - and there is also some granite from the Mourne Mountains in North-
ern Ireland. Over 200,000 tonnes of earth and stone also went into the mound.
You can walk down the narrow 19m passage, lined with 43 stone uprights (some of
them engraved), which leads into the
tomb chamber
about one-third of the way into the co-
lossal mound. The chamber has three recesses, and in these are large
basin stones
that held
cremated human bones. As well as the remains, the basins would have held funeral offer-
ings of beads and pendants, but these were stolen long before archaeologists arrived.
