Dronehenge, the subsurface giant Late Neolithic Henge discovered during a drought in the summer of 2018, has appeared again in a crop of winter wheat at Newgrange Farm.
The cropmarks of several large monuments, most of which were discovered during that famous summer, are visible again after an absence of a few years.
I discovered Dronehenge while flying my drone over Newgrange Farm in the company of Ken Williams on 10th July 2018. The discovery quickly went viral on social media that night, and in the weeks that followed the drone footage of the previously unknown monuments was seen by millions of TV viewers around the world.
The cropmarks show the likely remnants of an enormous complex of monuments, which archaeologist think mostly belong to the Late Neolithic, some time between around 3,000BCE and 2,500BCE or thereabouts.
The rectangular 'porch' feature, thought to be some sort of elaborate entrance to the ancient timber henge of Dronehenge, along with some of its double ditch segments, were visible during today's drone flight over Newgrange Farm at Brú na Bóinne.
Dronehenge is thought to be a giant henge enclosure, dating to about 4,500 years ago, that was originally built from standing timbers (tree trunks) inserted into large holes in the ground, and inside a double circle of those timbers was a double segmented ditch.
Some of the ditch segments were visible in today's drone reconnaissance. The Dronehenge monument measures over 150 metres (525ft) in diameter and was just one of up to a dozen similar monuments at Brú na Bóinne in the Late Neolithic. Some of these were impermanent timber monuments, others giant embanked enclosures still standing today.
The Great Palisade, which was also visible today, is a giant triple fence (quadruple in places) which was constructed of several thousand large upright timbers likely made from tree trunks or large boughs. Its existence was unknown before the imagery captured by Ken Wlliams and I (and later aerial photography by National Monuments Service) in 2018. It is a remarkable archaeological monument, spanning about 900 metres across the centre of the natural land terraces at Brú na Bóinne between the great monument of Newgrange and the Boyne River.
Take the tour
Join me on a tour of Newgrange Farm Archaeological Park (and the chamber of Newgrange) and hear all about the discovery of these remarkable monuments, plus much more of the rich archaeology and mythology of Brú na Bóinne. There are twice-monthly tours in April, May, June, July and August. CLICK HERE TO BOOK TICKETS.
Read more
Buy a signed copy of my book 'Dronehenge: The Story Behind the Remarkable Discovery at Newgrange'. Worldwide shipping.
Read a blog post about the discovery of Dronehenge, written just a few days after that fateful drone flight.
More incredible details about the monuments discovered by Anthony Murphy and Ken Williams in 2018.
