Two forthcoming talks on Newgrange and astronomy

With Imbolc only around the corner, I am delighted to announce that the talks tour for 2013 is about to kick off. I will give my first talk since 'Newgrange: Monument to Immortality' was published next Saturday, February 2nd, in Rostrevor, for the St. Bronagh's School of Celtic Studies. For information on the talk, and for directions to the venue, see the following website: http://celtic-spirituality.net/2013/01/st-bronagh-school-of-celtic-studies-2-february-2013/

On the following Monday, February 4th, I will be giving a talk to the Northern Ireland Amateur Astronomy Society in Ballyclare, Co. Antrim, at 8pm. See information about the venue etc at the NIAAS website here: http://www.eaas.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140%3Afebruary-2013-meeting&catid=3%3Aclub-news-a-events&Itemid=12

The topic will be Newgrange and Ireland's Ancient Astronomers, covering material from both of my books. I will have copies of both Island of the Setting Sun and Newgrange: Monument to Immortality on sale at both of these talks.

New Boyne Valley interactive map launched

A screen shot of the new Boyne Valley interactive map. © Anthony Murphy

A brand new fully interactive map of the Bend of the Boyne (Brú na Bóinne) monument complex has been launched over at Mythical Ireland. The map features many newly discovered monuments and landscape features and other possible ancient structures which heretofore haven't been included on maps of the area.

The map is Flash based and hovering over each site gives information about what type of monument it is and in some cases a bit of the mythology of the site as well. The new Mythical Ireland interactive Boyne Valley map includes exciting features only recently revealed by archaeological imaging techniques such as LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) and gradiometry.

Included are the Dowth causeway, a suspected raised routeway running from Dowth passage-tomb towards the giant Dowth Henge. Also featured is the Rossnaree enclosure, which was discovered during archaeological digging in 2010. The map can be found on Mythical Ireland.