The prehistoric site of Brú na Bóinne is dominated by the three great neolithic monuments of Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth. During excavations in the 1960’s, the Boyne Valley began to give up its secrets: the spectacular winter solstice alignment at Newgrange was rediscovered, two passages were uncovered at its sister mound Knowth. The complex contains Europe’s largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art. 



Newgrange is made up of 200,000 tons of material, it’s 85 meters in diameter and approximately 13 meters deep. 97 kerb stones ring the monument, each weighing at least a ton. Newgrange has never been fully excavated. The vast majority of the mound remains untouched, its secrets intact.

Filmmaker Neal Boyle has been intrigued by Newgrange and the Boyne Valley for a long time, everything from the neolithic art to the astronomical alignments built into the great mounds.  And in particular: the speculation that Newgrange had a second, as yet undiscovered chamber contained somewhere in the un-excavated bulk of the mound.  But how could you solve this 5,000 year old mystery without excavation?

And so ‘The Second Chamber’ project began in late 2019, which involved Boyle commissioning a geophysical survey of Newgrange to search for a chamber and the filming of a documentary which would tell the story of that search.  It took a further two years to fully fund the project but in June 2022, Boyle, his film crew and team of geophysicists from Ireland and Slovakia arrived in the Boyne Valley.

Rún na Bóinne will air on TG4 at 9.30pm on the 20th of December 2023, the eve of the winter solstice.