Local schoolchildren pick 60 lucky winners to come and see Winter Solstice at Newgrange

Visitors from  Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Spain and United States of America will flock to Co Meath in december to witness the Winter Solstice.

Mr. Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, TD, Minister of State at the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief (OPW) today congratulated the lucky winners in the Winter Solstice Lottery Draw for 2019.  

The draw took place this year in the new exhibition room at Knowth, to select those winners who will be provided with access into the Newgrange Chamber over the winter solstice period.  This year over 30,500 entries were received from Ireland and locations around the globe to experience the winter Solstice event at Newgrange.

Students from Donore, Knockcommon & Slane National School at the new Knowth Visitor Centre.

Sixty lucky winners were drawn out by the children of Donore, Knockcommon and Slane National Schools amid great excitement and hailed from locations  which included 15 of the 32 counties of Ireland. The winning applicants, along with a guest, will have access to the Chamber on one of the days between 18 and 23 December 2019. 

Speaking this morning, Minister Moran said, "I wish to thank the children from Donore, Knockcommon and Slane National Schools for their continued participation in the Winter Solstice Lottery.  Every year, they have the hugely responsible task of drawing the lucky winners of the Winter Solstice Lottery and every year, the excitement never wanes as each winner and their location is announced.  Newgrange and Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre combined attracted over 214,851 visitors last year and the variety of locations of the winners today is proof of the enduring significance that Newgrange has the world over.  I have no doubt that each winner will be delighted with their good fortune and will truly appreciate this unique event”.

The new Knowth Visitor Centre

The winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon which marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice occurs on either December 21 or 22, when the sun shines directly over the tropic of Capricorn; the summer solstice occurs on either June 20 or 21, when the sun shines directly over the tropic of Cancer.

Sunrise on the shortest days of the year begins at 8.56am and the light shines into the Newgrange Chamber for 17 minutes.  The Office of Public Works opens the monument for the dawn from December 18 until December 23 inclusive and general admission on those mornings is free of charge.

Application forms for the Winter Solstice Lottery

It was also revealed that 2018 visitor numbers for Newgrange were 154,195 while visitors to the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre stood at 60,656.