Newgrange Passage Tomb Kerbstones
There are 97 stones surrounding the Newgrange mound. Some are decorated with stone carvings called megalithic art. In Professor Michael J. O'Kelly's book Newgrange Archaeology, Art and Legend, the kerbstones are numbered 1 to 97.
Select any thumbnail below to view a larger photograph and learn where the kerbstone is located around the monument. Kerbstones 22 to 46 are still buried.
K1
K2
K3
K4
K5
K6
K7
K8
K9
K10
K11
K12
K13
K14
K15
K16
K17
K18
K19
K20
K21
K47
K48
K49
K50
K51
K52
K53
K54
K55
K56
K57
K58
K59
K60
K61
K62
K63
K64
K65
K66
K67
K68
K69
K70
K71
K72
K73
K74
K75
K76
K77
K78
K79
K80
K81
K82
K83
K84
K85
K86
K87
K88
K89
K90
K91
K92
K93
K94
K95
K96
K97Newgrange Great Circle Standing Stones
GC1
GC3
GC5
GC7
GC9
GC11
GC13
GC17
GC-1
GC-2
GC-8
GC-10Newgrange Orthostat R21
R21Knowth Kerbstones
At the neighbouring Knowth mound there are 124 surviving kerbstones - View Images.
Newgrange Geology
The majority of the stones at Newgrange including most of the kerbstones are Greywacke, a variety of sandstone found on the coast at Clogher Head, north of Newgrange. Geraldine Stout in Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne states "This type of rock weathers well and provides a good surface for decorating; it is the favoured stone type of the tomb builders. Given the quantity of stone used (c.200,000 tonnes) there must have been organised extraction of this material. Recent research suggests that the greywacke was quarried.
Similar stone has been identified in the Lower Palaeozoic Silurian zone which runs between counties Longford and Down and extends to within five kilometres of the area. The precise location of these prehistoric quarries has yet to be discovered. The maximum depth of these deposits does not exceed three metres, so exploitation of many sites would have been necessary. Primitive quarries, if backfilled, would not be easily noticed today"
