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Rising out of the grassy, windswept landscape that carpets Donore in County Meath, the kidney-shaped mound of Newgrange is an archaeological marvel that pre-dates both the Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza. A neat fringe of quartz cobblestones and 97 kerbstones skirt the circumference of the Newgrange, while faint traces of megalithic art can be found lingering on some of the larger stones. Built in circa 3200 BCE during the Neolithic period, this mysterious prehistoric monument is thought to be a passage tomb, although an in-depth study reveals that the structure may be steeped in a more complex religious and spiritual history. For centuries, Newgrange was the heart of an advanced Bronze Age civilization inhabiting the valley of the Boyne. The tomb was constructed in alignment with the night sky and the heavens: on the morning of the winter solstice once every year, the first rays of the sun flood the inner chamber of the otherwise pitch-black tomb for several minutes, a rare attraction that is privy to a handful of people picked through a lottery system.
