Visited Newgrange last Friday for the first time since a school tour many sunrises ago. Being only 9 or 10 at the time, I have vague recollections of the visit. I know that the visitor centre wasn’t built yet so buses would have pulled up close to the monument itself.

Today, the Brú na Bóinne centre provides visitors with an audio visual presentation of the history of the site before boarding the mini bus for the short drive to the monument.

Only 48 people per hour can take the bus journey, so you are advised to arrive early during peak season to ensure you get a place on one of the tours as there are no pre-bookings. The reason for the specific number of people per hour? Only 24 can fit inside the chamber at Newgrange.

We joined the 3:15pm tour and the bus was filled with a mixture of Irish, American, Australian, English and Indian people. It takes only 5 minutes to get from the visitor centre to the monument, so it wasn’t long before catching the first up close glimpse of this 5,000 year old ancient wonder.

After a 10 minute talk by our Irish speaking tour guide, one group of 24 entered the chamber whilst the other group took 10 to 15 minutes to walk outside. It’s all organised very well.

I always imagined the passageway leading to the chamber was longer, but it is quite short and a bit of a squeeze for some of the larger folk in the group. Some grunting and groaning could be heard at the narrowest part of the passageway

It was amazing to stand in the chamber and look up at the roof and how all of this was constructed without the modern machinery we have today. No water has ever penetrated through the roof. The Irish in the group had a bit of a giggle when the guide told us this and added “unlike some of the properties we have today in Ireland”.

Then it was time for some magic. The lights were turned off and we were in complete darkness. I’ve never experienced complete and utter darkness like that. Then slowly, a sliver of orange light creeped along the passageway and illuminated the 24 living souls pinned as far back to the walls as possible, so all could see the light make it’s way to the centre of the chamber. A really magical moment.

All to soon it was time to leave the chamber and make our way back to the light, climb the steps outside and pass by the chamber stone which separates the living from the dead.

Next day, we stopped off in Ikea on the way home. In between the heavy showers of rain, the sun shone brighly into the restaurant as we sat eating our lunch. I couldn’t help but be struck by the contrast between the ancient monument of Newgrange and this modern monument of our times.

I wonder will future generations ever stand and marvel at what we have created in our time, as we stand today and marvel at what our ancestors created in their time.

I really encourage you to make the trip to Newgrange if, like me, you’ve only ever visited once with a school tour. If you’ve never been at all, well you *really* should. Make a day of it and take your children if you have them. Get them to write or draw something about their visit so that when they grow up and visit again, they have something to jog their memory about their first time experiencing that orange light filling the darkness.