Deep into Newgrange Passage Tomb in Ireland’s ‘Valley of the Kings’
Stone-age peoples didn’t live in caves, they were Astromathematicians
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No amount of research reading can prepare visitors for the sheer scale of this 5,200-year-old Neolithic passage tomb constructed on an elevated ridge in the River Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland. There is little wonder it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Newgrange is 80 metres (262 feet) across and its flattened top stands 12 metres (39 feet) high. It is older than Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, older than the Pyramids at Giza, Egypt, and dwarfs the two later religious monuments which share the same site: the remains of a henge consisting of a double circle of wooden posts 100 metres (328 feet) in diameter, and part of the ring of megaliths, seen in the image, on guard beside it. I simply stood and stared.
The passage tomb cairn is made up of hundreds of thousands of water-washed pebbles taken from the valley floor, layered with soil, about 200,000 tonnes worth in all, allowed to grass. That alone is a monumental, hand-built, construct. Yet, it accounts for only its inner core.
Its outer facing consists of:
- white quartz cobblestones from the Wicklow Mountains 30 miles (50 km) to the south
- dark granodiorite cobbles from the Mourne Mountains 30 miles to the north
- 97 kerbstones, the biggest 3 metres (10 feet) long, 1.2 metres (4 feet) high, weighing about 5,000 kg (5 tons), hand-picked rather than quarried, from areas up to 20 miles (32 km) distant.
Bear in mind that once transported to the site, everything had to be carried uphill.
And there was I thinking it had been a bit of a performance for us just to arrive.
Vehicles are not allowed anywhere near, a huge positive in my view. The Visitor Centre, with its car parks and facilities, is on the opposite side of the river. Having booked timed tickets, we made our way along a landscaped path, down the hill and across a footbridge to a waiting minibus for the short journey, the bus then picking up returnees. All this is hidden by deciduous woodland and finally a high hedge so the 21st century does not intrude. It also…
