Winter Stars Over Newgrange

Night at the 5000-year old passage tomb at Newgrange, one of the two World Heritage Sites in Ireland and the most famous of all Irish prehistoric sites. Newgrange was built in such a way that at dawn on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, a narrow beam of sunlight for a very short time illuminates the floor of the chamber at the end of the long passageway. The stone in foreground of this image is part of what is known as the Great Circle of which only a few have survived. The distant light hase on the horizon is Dublin city.