Newgrange Winter Solstice Webcast

The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year, occurring on 21 or 22 December in the Northern Hemisphere. At Newgrange, a beam of sunlight enters at sunrise through the roof-box above the entrance, illuminating the chamber for around 17 minutes.

Live stream recordings

Winter Solstice 2025

Newgrange Winter Solstice Live Stream recorded 21 December 2025

Winter Solstice 2024

Winter Solstice 2020

The annual Winter Solstice gathering at the Neolithic Passage Tomb of Newgrange was webcast in December 2020 when access to the chamber was restricted due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Winter Solstice Webcast 2007

The Winter Solstice illumination at Newgrange was first streamed live on the internet in 2007. Victor Reijs has posted a six minute compilation of the one hour OPW (Office of Public Works) streamed video.

The 2007 Winter Solstice webcast from Newgrange was broadcast on the mornings of Friday 21 December and Saturday 22 December 2007. The conditions were excellent on the morning of the 21st. The rising sun illuminated the passage and chamber between 8:58 am and 9:15 am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). On the morning of the 22nd the rising sun was blocked by a low bank of cloud. The sun cleared the cloud by 9:30 am, too late to illuminate the chamber.

The webcast and an exhibition at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre celebrates the 40th anniversary of the re-discovery of the Winter Solstice phenomenon at Newgrange by Professor O’Kelly in 1967.

Newgrange is best known for the illumination of its passage and chamber by the winter solstice sun. Above the entrance to the passage at Newgrange there is an opening called a roof-box. This orifice held a great surprise for those who unearthed it. Its purpose is to allow sunlight to penetrate the chamber on the shortest days of the year around the winter solstice.

At dawn, from 19 December to 23 December, a narrow beam of light penetrates the roof-box and reaches the floor of the chamber, gradually extending to the rear of the passage. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens within the chamber so that the whole room becomes dramatically illuminated. This event lasts for 17 minutes, beginning around 9 am.

Newgrange's accuracy as a time-telling device is remarkable when one considers that it was built 500 years before the Great Pyramids and more than 1,000 years before Stonehenge. The intent of its builders was undoubtedly to mark the beginning of the new year. In addition, it may have served as a powerful symbol of the victory of life over death.

Each year the Winter Solstice event attracts much attention at Newgrange. Many gather at the ancient tomb to wait for dawn, as people did 5,000 years ago. So great is the demand to be one of the few inside the chamber during the solstice that there is a free annual lottery

Unfortunately, as with many Irish events that depend upon sunshine, if the skies are overcast, there is not much to be seen. Yet all agree that it is an extraordinary feeling to wait in the darkness, as people did so long ago, for the longest night of the year to end.

Newgrange Winter Solstice Archive