In ancient Ireland, the year was divided into a bright half, and a dark half and was plotted by the movement of the sun using monuments and satellite cairns dotted across the country. This ancestral legacy is most evident in the stone monuments built in the Boyne Valley at Brú na Bóinne where giant megalithic structures, now known as Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, stand proud in a magical landscape.

Although the archaeological landscape within Brú na Bóinne is dominated by the three well-known large Neolithic passage tombs, Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth, an additional ninety or so monuments have been recorded in the area giving rise to one of the most significant archaeological complexes in terms of scale and density of monuments and the material evidence that accompanies them. The Brú na Bóinne tombs, in particular Knowth, contain the largest assemblage of megalithic art in Western Europe.

The area was designated a World Heritage Site in 1993 in recognition of its outstanding universal value. The scale of passage tomb construction, the important concentration of megalithic art as well as the range of sites and the long continuity of activity were cited by USESCO as reasons for the site’s inscription.

 These impressive structures, built circa 3500 BC, were used as passage tombs but they were also ceremonial in function as a lot of effort went into creating an alignment with special events on the earth calendar such as the winter solstice and the equinox, important dates for early farming communities. Much later, the Celts continued and refined these earlier traditions with festivals to mark the quarter days of the solar calendar with the feasts of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain.