Published: Wednesday, 16th December, 2009 4:53pm

Dawn watch gathers at Newgrange monument ahead of winter solstice

by Ann Casey

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An attempt to recreate the Solstice phenomenon at Newgrange will be made by student archaeologists tomorrow (Thursday) as the annual 'dawn watch' begins at the east Meath national monument.

They have built a replica of the megalithic tomb to see if they are successful in creating a lightbox that will allow light into the chamber at dawn tomorrow and the entire experiment will be broadcast on RTE television.

Meanwhile, 52 people who won a place in the tomb at Newgrange in a raffle earlier this year will join the 'dawn watch' this year. Groups of people will gather in the tomb each morning from Friday until Wednesday to wait for the light to enter the tomb at dawn.

Among those who have won the opportunity are people who will travel to Meath from Los Angeles and other parts of the US, France, Sweden, Portugal, Austria, the UK and all over Ireland.

The names of the winners were drawn from 32,995 entries by children from Slane, Knockcommon and Donore National Schools in September.

On Monday morning, the actual winter solstice, invited guests will include De Ed Krupp of Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, a renowned arhaeological astronomer, and other dignitaries. Also on Monday morning, hundreds of visitors are expected to wait outside the tomb to watch the sunrise and among those who will be there this year is a lady who will celebrate her 80th birthday that day.

Tomorrow's project involved students recreating the Newgrange tomb which was carried out in conjunction with RTE and model makers from Dun Laoghaoire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.

They have attempted to reconstruct the famous lightbox at the tomb. The first part of the study was undertaken in the summer where students tried to establish the position of the winter solstice and plan the engineering and design of the passage, using only instruments that would have been available at the time the tomb was built.

During the summer and autumn, the model-makers were at work recreation the tomb and lightbox and they have been assembling the model at Newgrange this week. They will await the first rays of sun coming over the horizon tomorrow morning to see if their lightbox can accurately match the wonder of the adjacent ancient passage tomb.