A large crowd gathered at the Knockroe Passage Tomb in Kilkenny for the Winter Solstice.
The sun aligns at sunrise and sunset on the shortest day of the year at the tomb, which dates back more than 5,000 years, making it unique in Ireland.
Hundreds of people have also gathered at Newgrange tomb to see the illumination of the 19-metre long passage inside the 5,200 year-old tomb.
Outgoing Junior Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan says Knockroe is a special place,
“I’ve been attending the Solstice for many years, and great credit to the local community who’ve done fantastic work down the years in making it more accessible and also improving the visitor experience through signage.”
“It’s a national monument under my care, and I feel very proud that it is in Kilkenny. I know a lot of people speak about Newgrange, but Knockroe has both a morning and an evening alignment, and so I’ll be going there this afternoon to launch a publication about the Linguan Valley but the wider historic and megalithic landscape of that beautiful part of County Kilkenny and Tipperary and then we will wait for the magic to happen as the chamber is lit up.”
“Hopefully, the sun will stay out, and when you are there for when the weather is good and behaves itself, it’s really incredible just to see the spirals, the carvings and all the beautiful carvings on the stones there.”
“So it’s a very, very special place. It means a lot to a lot of people for very different reasons, but there’s no doubt that we’re very, very proud of it. And I think the local community as custodians of Knockroe have done a wonderful job in ensuring that it is conserved and celebrated long into the future.”
