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Loughcrew Equinox Sunrise - March 2011
The Office of Public Works will have staff in attendance at Cairn T, Loughcrew on the mornings of Sunday the 20th of March, Monday the 21st March and Tuesday the 22nd March from 6.15am until 7.30am.
Admission to the Chamber of Cairn T for the Equinox Illumination of the chamber is free of charge.
As the chamber is quite small, only 5 or 6 people can be inside at a time. Visitors are requested to stay inside for only a few minutes so that everyone can get a chance to visit.
Please note that it is very important that visitors dress warmly and are wearing stout shoes. The climb to the top of Carnbane East is very steep and can be slippery after rain or on frosty mornings.
The Equinox occurs twice a year, the Spring Equinox in March and the Autumn Equinox in September. The Spring Equinox is an hour earlier because it occurs during our winter time. Visit the Coffee Shop at Loughcrew Gardens for breakfast from 7.30am onwards.
Loughcrew Equinox - 20th September 2009
Loughcrew Video - Spring Equinox 2005
The progress of the sunbeam on the backstone inside Cairn T at Loughcrew was video recorded at sunrise
on the morning of March 23rd 2005. The 50 minute video has been compressed to 1 minute 46 seconds
and included in the following YouTube Video.
Days to get longer as spring officially begins
An article by Pamela Newenham of The Irish Times - Saturday March 20th 2010.Spring officially begins today, the day of the vernal equinox, when the rising sun penetrates the passage of cairn T at Loughcrew, illuminating the backstone. The vernal equinox, like its autumnal counterpart, is not fixed on any certain date, although almost by definition it comes around at yearly intervals. This year, it will occur at 5.32pm today.
Aligned with the equinoxes is cairn T, the interior of which is illuminated by a shaft of sunlight, exposing elaborate engravings on the stone inside at dawn on the equinox days. As the days become longer and we bid farewell to winter, cairn T at Loughcrew, also known as Sliabh na Callighe meaning the hill of the witch, located at the northernmost point of Co Meath near the village of Oldcastle, will welcome the sunrise of the spring equinox.
From today until Monday, members of the public willing to battle early morning starts will be able to to see the sun light up the ancient tomb between 6.15am and 7.30am. Clare Tuffy, manager of the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre, said: “It’s great because it’s such a high hill, there’s a sense of pilgrimage climbing it, knowing that people were also climbing here 5,000 years ago”. Just as the December solstice at Newgrange heralds the beginning of the slow death of winter, the March equinox brings with it the promise of the coming summer, Ms Tuffy said.
Loughcrew is one of four Neolithic complexes in Ireland, all dating from the late Stone Age. The extensive hilltop cemetery spans three relatively flat summits and consists of the remains of about 30 passage graves constructed from 3,000BC to 2,000BC and used well into the Iron Age.
The sun illuminates the passageway and an internal chamber at the cairn T
Neolithic burial chamber at Loughcrew for the vernal equinox.
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