•
Newgrange, once a year, at the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly along the long passage into the chamber for about 17 minutes and illuminates the chamber floor. (Generally accepted). It was built during the
Neolithic period, around 3200 BC, making it older than
Stonehenge and the
Egyptian pyramids. •
Knowth is a Neolithic passage grave and ancient monument estimated to date from c. 3200 BC. •
Dowth in
Boyne Valley,
County Meath is a Neolithic passage tomb date with Astronomical alignments from between approximately 3200 and 2900 BC. •
Loughcrew near
Oldcastle, County Meath is a group of
megalithic tombs dating back to the 4th millennium BC, designed to receive the beams of the rising sun on the spring and autumnal
equinox - the light shining down the passage and illuminating the art on the backstone. •
Carrowkeel •
Mound of the Hostages •
Drombeg stone circle, at the winter solstice, the sun sets into a v formed by two distant overlapping hills and makes an alignment with the altar stone and the two main uprights. Due to the nature of the site and the western hills, local mid-winter sunset is c. 15:50. •
Beltany stone circle •
Beaghmore Stone Circles, a complex of early
Bronze Age megalithic features, stone circles and cairns. Some archaeologists believe that the circles have been constructed in relation to the rising of the sun at the solstice, or to record the movements of the sun and moon acting as observatories for particular lunar, solar or stellar events. Three of the stone rows point to the sunrise at the time of the solstice and another is aligned towards moonrise at the same period. •
Boheh Stone, believed to have been aligned to the sun's path along the mountain of
Croagh Patrick ==Italy==