History of Newgrange

The complex of Newgrange was originally built between c. 3100 and 2900 BC, meaning that it is approximately 5,000 years old. According to carbon-14 dates, it is more than five hundred years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and predates Stonehenge by about a thousand years, as well as predating the Mycenaean culture of ancient Greece. Geological analysis indicates that much of building materials used to construct Newgrange were littoral blocks collected from the rocky beach at Clogherhead,CoLouth, approx. 20 km to the north-east. The blocks were possibly transported, to the Newgrange site by sea and up the River Boyne, by securing them to the underside of boats at low tide (see diagram in Benozzo (2010)); four slabs of brown carboniferous sandstone