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Newgrange Winter Solstice Lottery
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Admission to the chamber of Newgrange for the Winter Solstice
sunrise is by lottery. Application forms
to witness what surely must be the world's oldest calendar clock, are available at the reception
desk in the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre.
There were 31,531 applications submitted for the 2011 Winter Solstice Draw.
Application forms are now available at the Brú na Bóinne
Visitor Centre
for the 2012 Solstice Lottery Draw which will take place on September 28th 2012.
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Applications by email
There is no on-line application system, however the obliging Staff at
the Visitor Centre will fill out a form on your behalf.
Email your postal details and a contact telephone number to
and they will complete an application form on your behalf.
At the end of September each year, 50 names are drawn by local school children,
10 names for each morning the chamber is illuminated, 2 places in the
chamber are awarded to each of the names drawn. A reserve list is also drawn,
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.
Application forms are available at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre
where there is a special post box for completed application forms. Places
allocated by lottery are non-transferable. Lottery winners cannot offer their place in the chamber to someone else.
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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 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 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.
Click Here for more on the 2003 Winter Solstice.
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