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Ancient Ireland Background Wallpaper

The Boyne Valley holds some of the finest prehistoric monuments in Europe. These wallpaper images capture Newgrange, Knowth, Loughcrew, Fourknocks and other ancient sites, each available in 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 sizes for desktop use.

Newgrange is a passage tomb built around 3200 BC, older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, and famous for the winter solstice sunrise that illuminates its inner chamber.

Newgrange grass-covered mound with white quartz retaining wall seen from across a wide green field. Newgrange, County Meath. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

The great entrance, with its massive kerbstones and standing stones, marks the start of the passage that leads inward to the solstice alignment.

Newgrange entrance with quartz facade, roof-box, flanking standing stones and wooden steps before the passage. Newgrange entrance and standing stones. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

The white quartz facade and encircling kerbstones give Newgrange its distinctive appearance, restored after excavation in the twentieth century.

Newgrange mound with quartz and granite facade, standing stones and cattle grazing in the foreground fields. Newgrange megalithic passage tomb. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

The great mound rises above the Boyne floodplain, its kerbstones and revetted wall visible from the surrounding fields and river bank.

Newgrange passage tomb with white quartz facade, kerbstones and standing stone viewed across green fields. Newgrange from the surrounding fields. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

From above, the scale of the Brú na Bóinne monuments and their setting in the Boyne floodplain becomes clear, with Newgrange dominating the ritual landscape.

Aerial view of Newgrange with white quartz facade, kerbstones, standing stones and paved visitor paths. Newgrange, aerial view. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

On rare occasions a rainbow arcs over the great mound, as it did at the winter solstice in 2002.

Rainbow arcing above Newgrange's white quartz facade as golden sunlight lights the mound and green grass below. Rainbow at Newgrange, winter solstice 2002. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

The River Boyne winds past Newgrange through a landscape shaped by thousands of years of settlement, ritual and farming.

Mute swan on the River Boyne with Newgrange visible on the horizon beyond green and ploughed meadows. Mute swan on the River Boyne at Newgrange. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

Knowth is the largest passage tomb in the Brú na Bóinne complex, with two passages and one of the greatest collections of megalithic art in Western Europe.

Interior of the Knowth passage with shafts of sunlight illuminating mossy orthostats and the earthen floor. Knowth, County Meath. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

Loughcrew in County Meath is another major passage tomb cemetery, where Cairn T receives a beam of equinox sunlight that moves across carved stones inside the chamber.

Loughcrew Cairn T backstone lit by equinox sunbeam, showing zig-zags, sunburst circles, ladder motif and smaller rayed symbols. Equinox illumination in the chamber of Loughcrew Cairn T. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

Fourknocks is a smaller passage tomb north of the Boyne, known for its decorated chamber and intimate atmosphere when viewed by candlelight.

Fourknocks passage tomb stone carved with pecked zig-zag lines forming nested diamond patterns, lit by warm candlelight. Fourknocks megalithic art by candlelight. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

Balgeeth near Ardcath lies within the wider Boyne Valley, an area rich in mounds, standing stones and other prehistoric remains.

Double rainbow arcing over a treeline against a grey sky at Balgeeth, Ardcath, County Meath. Rainbow at Balgeeth, Ardcath, County Meath. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

Baltray on the Boyne estuary preserves a group of standing stones that look out over the river towards the ancient monuments upstream.

Two weathered grey standing stones on a grassy slope at Baltray, with orange lichen on the nearer stone and distant sea. Standing stones at Baltray on the Boyne estuary. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

The Baltray stones catch the low November sun, a reminder of how these monuments were often placed to mark light, landscape and season.

Tall standing stone silhouetted against the bright sun above a green valley with a river glinting in the distance. Baltray standing stones in the November noon sun. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

The Hill of Tara was the ceremonial centre of kingship in early Ireland, where standing stones and earthworks still define the summit of the ridge.

Two lichen-covered standing stones on short grass at the Hill of Tara before a backdrop of evergreen trees. Standing stones at the Hill of Tara. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768.

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