Newgrange Solstice - 18th December 2010
At Newgrange in the Boyne Valley, a beam of sunrise enters through the roof-box on mornings around the Winter Solstice, travels the 19-metre passage, and illuminates the inner chamber. The photographs below record that dawn on 18th December 2010, a cold snowy morning when cloud on the horizon parted to let the higher sunbeam reach the chamber.
A cold snowy morning at Newgrange with a bank of cloud on the eastern horizon
The Solstice Lottery winners are inside waiting and hoping for the sun to break through the cloud
OPW Staff and a few Solstice Watches outside the passage entrance
It looks like the standing stone is floating a few inches above the ground, of course it's just a visual illusion
The sun shining through the roofbox and up the passage, it's the higher beam that illuminates the chamber
The standing stones throwing long shadows
The White Quartz front wall of Newgrange illuminated by the morning sun
The Solstice Lottery winners emerge from the Newgrange chamber
The sun retreats from the passage
Newgrange Winter Solstice Archive
- 21st December 2025 Winter Solstice.
- 19th December 2024 Winter Solstice.
- 19th December 2023 Winter Solstice.
- 20th December 2022 Winter Solstice.
- 20th December 2020 Winter Solstice.
- 18th December 2016 Winter Solstice.
- 20th December 2015 Winter Solstice.
- 19th December 2014 Winter Solstice.
- 21st December 2013 Winter Solstice.
- 18th December 2011 Winter Solstice.
- 22nd December 2010 Winter Solstice.
- 19th December 2010 Winter Solstice.
- 18th December 2010 Winter Solstice.
- 22nd December 2009 Winter Solstice.
- 21st December 2009 Winter Solstice.
- 21st December 2008 Winter Solstice.
- 21st December 2007 Winter Solstice.
- 22nd December 2006 Winter Solstice.
- 21st December 2006 Winter Solstice.
- 21st December 2005 Winter Solstice.
- 20th December 2005 Winter Solstice.
- 21st December 2004 Winter Solstice.
- 19th December 2004 Winter Solstice.
- 21st December 2003 Winter Solstice.
- 22nd December 2002 Winter Solstice.
- 21st December 2001 Winter Solstice.
Setting Sun Alignments
The Winter Solstice Setting Sun illuminates the chamber at the nearby Dowth mound and at the cairn on Slieve Gullion in Co. Armagh.