Lottery winners attend Newgrange chamber for this year's winter solstice sunrise

People gathered at Newgrange this morning to mark sunrise on the shortest day of the year, also known as the Winter Solstice.

People around the world also tuned into the Winter Solstice sunrise at Newgrange that was live streamed.

A status yellow weather warning in place and conditions were cloudy however the sun's rays managed to penetrate the roof passage to partially light up part of the passageway and chamber.

At sunrise on the shortest day of the year, for 17 minutes, direct sunlight can enter the Neolithic monument to illuminate the chamber of the Stone Age tomb through a small opening above its entrance called the ‘roof box.’

Only those who have secured a ticket through the lottery system could attend.

Meanwhile, a new Irish documentary crew have discovered evidence that a second chamber may exist in the prehistoric Newgrange monument.

After a nine-day survey of the site in 2022, a team of researchers believe they may have made the biggest discovery about the Co Meath cairn in over fifty years.

Rún na Bóinne (Secret of the Boyne), which aired last night on TG4, follows a geophysics team from Ireland and Slovakia carrying out non-invasive tests to find out more about the site’s architecture and history.

The results indicate that spaces in the cairn that look like collapsed cavities could have once been extra chambers, similar to the existing chamber, which the cavities are oddly in alignment with.