Newgrange

Now

Enter the lottery

Newgrange is a passage tomb built around 3200 BC at Brú na Bóinne, the bend of the River Boyne in County Meath, about 25 miles north of Dublin. On the mornings of December 18 to 22, the rising sun shines through a stone opening above its door, runs up to 62 feet along the passage and lights the chamber at the end. After seventeen minutes it slides back out the way it came. To stand inside when it happens, you have to win a lottery.

The draw for the 2027 solstice is open now: you enter online, through the link on Heritage Ireland’s Newgrange page. The 2026 draw took place on October 15 at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre, and children from three local primary schools, in Donore, Knockcommon and Slane, pulled the names. There were 34,263 online entries. There were 38 winners, and each may bring a guest.

The winners came from Canada, Germany, India, Poland, North Macedonia, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States, and from Armagh, Dublin, Kerry, Kildare, Limerick and Meath. You are as likely as anyone.

In 2026, 34,263 people entered a lottery for 38 places inside a tomb, and nobody could promise them the sun.

3200 BC

A window above the door

The opening is called the roof-box. It sits above the entrance, over the great entrance stone carved with spirals, and it is aimed at one sunrise: the one in the week of the winter solstice. The people who built it left no instructions. They left the alignment.

Newgrange is one of forty passage tombs at Brú na Bóinne, and one of its three great mounds, with Knowth and Dowth. Together they hold the largest collection of megalithic art in Western Europe, and since 1993 they have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Another triple spiral, like the one on the entrance stone, is carved inside the passage.

December 18–22

Five mornings, no promises

The window does not move. It is the same five mornings every year, because the sun keeps the same appointment. The solstice itself falls at 8:50 p.m. Irish time on December 21, 2026, and at 2:42 a.m. on December 22, 2027; the five mornings cluster around it. What changes is the sky, and no morning is guaranteed, so give yourself two or three of them, not one.

In 2026, sunrise at Newgrange falls at 8:39 a.m. on the 18th, 8:41 on the 21st and 8:42 on the 22nd, Irish time, and the sky starts to lighten about forty minutes before. Inside, when the sun clears the horizon, a beam enters through the roof-box and travels up the passage. It widens as the sun climbs, lights the chamber, and fades after seventeen minutes.

The timing is tight. One of Heritage Ireland’s own photographs, taken on a December 19, is filed as “Sun up but too late for chamber.”

On those five mornings the visitor center opens early and suspends its regular tours. Heritage Ireland announces travel and traffic details shortly before the solstice: read them before you set the alarm. If you cannot travel, the Office of Public Works livestreams the sunrise; in 2026 it is on Monday, December 21, and the recordings of past years are on its YouTube channel.

8 a.m.

Where to stand

Outside. Heritage Ireland’s own photographs show the solstice crowd on the grass in front of the mound, some of them holding hands in a line facing the white wall. The chamber is for the winners. The sunrise belongs to everyone in the field.

Face southeast. The sun comes up over Red Mountain, at Donore, and from there it shines into the roof-box. Be in place by eight, before the sky turns. Bring a flask and a hat, and expect to stand for the better part of an hour. Dress for a field at dawn in December: the monuments are outdoors, with no shelter.

If you win, a few things change. The passage is low and narrow, and Heritage Ireland warns that it may not suit anyone with claustrophobia or limited mobility. Photography is not permitted in the passage or the chamber. You will watch with your eyes only.

Any other day

The tour, seven days ahead

The rest of the year, Newgrange is open to anyone who books the tour, and the booking window is what matters. The visitor center opened in June 1997 to manage the flow of people to the tombs, and the number let in each day is limited. All visits start at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre, near Donore; a shuttle bus takes you to the monument, and you go in with a guide. Do not drive to the mound itself: you will not be let in.

From November 2 to the end of February, the tour is Newgrange plus the exhibition, chamber included. For tours between November 2 and March 1, tickets go online seven days ahead, at midnight Irish time; between April 1 and November 1, thirty days ahead. Cancellations come back online twice a day, between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. and between 3 and 4 p.m. Buy only on Heritage Ireland’s site: tickets from anyone else are refused at the door. The visitor center is at Donore, Drogheda, with a public car park close by; call +353 41 988 0300 before you set out if the weather turns, since the Office of Public Works may close its sites at short notice.

In December the visitor center is open from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., and closed from December 23 to 27 and on January 1. Children under eighteen must come with an adult. Stand in the chamber on an ordinary afternoon, look back up the passage toward the roof-box, and you will understand the lottery.