Laois tour guide shares 'fantastic' solstice experience at Newgrange
A Laois tourguide was one of the lucky few this Winter Solstice to see sunlight pierce the interior of the Newgrange pagan burial chamber in Ireland.
Maurice Curran from Abbeyleix, a Fáilte Ireland approved tourguide, is normally on the other side of the tourist experience in Ireland, bringing many American visitors around the country.
This December 21, the Kildare native fulfilled an item off his own bucket list, when with his wife Aileen, he headed to the 5,000 year old heritage site for the magic moment.
"It was fantastic. It was freezing there, but it was a beautiful morning. At 8.30 the sun rose and by 9am the sky had clouded over. But we got to see the moment inside.
"I bring tourists there week after week, and there is usually an artifical light to show where the sun comes in, but to see it in reality was special," he told the Leinster Express / Laois Live.
The event was a lottery this year for who got to be inside the chamber, but the Laois couple took their chances.
"We went up because the weather looked good. We couldn't have picked a better day. They let people in after the lottery winners go in first, so we got lucky," the tourguide said.
He explained the history of the site and its significance, on his social media page.
"The chamber of the Neolithic passage tomb Newgrange, was partially illuminated during this morning's sunrise for the winter solstice - the astronomical phenomenon that marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year.
"The Winter Solstice is an astronomical phenomenon that marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice occurs on 21st or 22th December, when the sun shines directly over the tropic of Capricorn. This year the winter solstice occurs on Wednesday, December 21st at 21.47 GMT in the Northern Hemisphere.
"At sunrise on the shortest day of the year, for 17 minutes, direct sunlight can enter the Newgrange monument, not through the doorway, but through the specially contrived small opening above the entrance known as the ‘roof box’, to illuminate the Chamber.
"We tend to think of a year as being 365 days long but the average duration of a year is approximately 365 days five hours 48 minutes and 45 seconds. Even this varies by a few seconds every year, since the Earth's motion is not just caused by the Sun's pull of gravity. This means the solstice occurs around six hours later every year.
"To resolve the difference between our calendar year and the actual time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun, we add an extra day at the end of February every four years. This makes both solstices jump back to the previous date for each leap year. It should be noted that the orbital and daily rotational motion of the Earth, such as the “wobble” in the Earth's axis (precession), also contributes to the changing solstice dates.
"The solar alignment of the passage tomb to face the rising sun on the winter solstice is a significant astronomical finding of global importance.
"Newgrange is one of the best examples in Europe of a passage-tomb or chambered cairn. It was constructed around 3200BC, according to the most reliable Carbon 14 dates available from archaeology. This makes it more than 600 years older than the Giza Pyramids in Egypt, and 1,000 years more ancient than Stonehenge.
"Newgrange sits on the top of an elongated ridge within a large bend in the Boyne River about five miles west of the town of Drogheda. This area had great eminence thoughout Irish history. Legend tells us the foundations of Christianity were laid here. Two miles or so downstream is Oldbridge, where the Battle of the Boyne took place in 1690.
"Newgrange was built in a time when there was only stone, not metal, used as an everyday material for tools and weapons. In 1993, Newgrange and its sister sites Knowth and Dowth were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of their outstanding cultural legacy," the Laois tourguide explained.