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Newgrange Winter Solstice Lottery
People
gather at Newgrange for winter solstice dawn
on each of the mornings from December 18th to December 23rd inclusive. Sunrise is at 8.58am.
All access to the chamber is decided by lottery. However, everyone else is welcome to come and stand on the outside of the monument.
To enter the lottery, you can fill out an application form in Brú Na Bóinne
Visitor Centre
when you visit Newgrange.
Alternatively you can send your postal address, a contact telephone number and an indication whether or not
you have ever visited Newgrange by e-mail to
On receipt of these details a member of staff will complete an application on your
behalf. Applicants must be over 10 years of age. An adult must accompany
children under 18 years of age. Only applications on the official form can be
entered into the draw. Applications are valid for the current year’s draw only.
The draw for places at Newgrange for Solstice 2016 will take place on September 30th 2016.
Children from three local schools will choose the winning applicants.
The successful people will be notified by mid October.
Fifty names are drawn, and each of those fifty people is invited along with a
guest to attend on a specific morning. There are ten lottery winners and their
guests in the chamber on each of the mornings. Some additional names are
also drawn and placed on a reserve list. The reserve list is there in case
someone whose name is drawn for the initial list is not contactable or else
finds it impossible to travel to Newgrange on the date they have been
assigned. The place at Newgrange for dawn is non-transferable. Lottery
winners cannot offer their place in the chamber to someone else.
There were 30,475 entries for Solstice 2015.
There is no guarantee that there will be sunlight in the chamber on any of the
mornings…the event is totally weather dependent!
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The weather conditions on 21st December 2007 were
perfect and rising sun illuminated the passage and chamber of the Newgrange mound. An achieve of the
Solstice 2007
webcast and a six minute
compilation is available at Newgrange.com
The passage and chamber inside the ancient mound at Newgrange are
illuminated by the winter solstice sunrise. A shaft of sunlight shines
through the roof box over the entrance
and penetrates the passage to light up the chamber.
The dramatic event
lasts for 17 minutes at dawn on a few days before and after the Winter
Solstice. Admission to the chamber at Newgrange for the Winter Solstice
sunrise is by lottery.
When Newgrange was built over 5000 years ago, the winter solstice sunbeam would have
made its way to the back recess of the central chamber. Due to changes in the tilt
of the Earth's axis the sunbeam now stops 2 metres from the back recess.
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Newgrange Winter Solstice 2006
Images from
the morning of the 21st December 2006. Joe & Clare won tickets in
the winter solstice lottery
for December 22nd, they were very fortunate to experience a glorious
sunrise in the chamber at Newgrange.
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Newgrange Winter Solstice 2005
I am very grateful to Anne-Maria Moroney who was at Newgrange on the 20th of
December and has made these images
available.
The sun didn't shine on the morning of the 21st
December, the disappointment was eloquently described by Eileen Battersby in the Irish Times.
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Newgrange Winter Solstice 2004
Images from
the actual morning of the winter solstice - 21st December 2004.
This image photographed from inside the chamber by Alan
Betson was printed in The Irish Times newspaper on the 22nd December 2004.
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Newgrange Winter Solstice
2004
Images of a beautiful
sunrise at Newgrange on the 19th December 2004.
Sun light in the passage at Newgrange viewed from the entrance.
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Newgrange Winter Solstice 2003
The Winter Solstice sunrise illuminates the passage way leading into the burial
chamber of the megalithic passage tomb at Newgrange on the 21st December
2003. This wonderful photograph by Alan Betson was printed on the
front page of The Irish Times newspaper
on the 22nd December 2003. |

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