Around 40 previously unknown monuments have been identified in a survey of the Bru na Boinne area close to Newgrange, about 40 kilometres north-northwest of Dublin (Ireland). Researchers want to find out if the southern side of the river is as interesting as the northern side.
     Dr Steve Davis of the University College Dublin School of Archaeology, who has worked for over a decade on the Bru na Boinne landscape, said the newly discovered monuments appear to range from early Neolithic houses and timber enclosures, to Bronze Age burial monuments, and some early medieval farmsteads.
     The area includes locations on both sides of the Boyne - within the bend of the river, and across from the megalithic tombs at Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth. The research is part of the "Boyne to Brodgar" project examining connections between Neolithic sites in the Boyne Valley and the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland. When completed the project will have surveyed more than five square kilometres.
     Dr Davis confirms that a 2017 survey revealed a spectacular monument aligned with the Winter Solstice sunrise, in a field just metres from the Newgrange passage tomb. He believes it probably developed over several phases, and comprised a timber or stone passage surrounded by a large rectangular arrangement of wooden posts, the whole enclosed with several rings of smaller timber posts. Despite significant tomb-like features Dr Davis believes it is unlikely to be a tomb, and is 200-300 years younger than Newgrange.

Edited from Irish Examiner (6 August 2019)