The Stone Womb

Newgrange is the best known of the three great Irish passage tombs of the Bru Na Boinne complex. Constructed during the New Stone Age, the passage tombs at Bru Na Boinne are about 5,000 years old. The people who built the giant hand crarved stone womb belonged to a thriving farm community. A passage tomb is as it suggests, a passage leading into a chamber where the remains of the dead were placed, perhaps, to be reborn. I say this because, for me, it felt more like I was entering a giant stone vaginal passage.
The walls of this giant womb were narrow and musty. As I crouched to enter the dark zone with only a flashlight, I had a mental flashback to a recent visit to my gynocologist. It was the vast opening into the giant uterus of the tomb that made me think about the years of engineering that must have gone into this art form.
After 5,000 years, the corbelled roof at Newgrange is still waterproof. Constructed of granite boulders and quartz stones from the nearby River Boyne, it’s estimated that the tomb weighs 200,000 tons. Newgrange sits high on a hilltop, overlooking the sheep filled hills of Meath. The giant circular mound is highly regarded as one of the finest achievments of the European Neolithic Art period.
One must experience what I like to call the giant stone womb.

NEWGRANGE, Irelands Passage Tombs www.newgrange.com