Climbing Djouce Mountain at dawn to mark the solstice... For Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, listen to Alternative Winter Solstice by Christina Park above...
Newgrange was out, of course. Only a lucky few ever get to witness a winter solstice there, to sit in the perfect darkness of that ancient chamber waiting for dawn to find its way in. So, my friend Cathy and I decided on our own midwinter ritual: we'd walk to the top of Djouce Mountain in Wicklow to meet the sunrise.
It had seemed like a great idea from the comfortable distance of a fireside pint. But reality bites pretty hard in the grim pre-dawn of a winter morning, gazing out from the only car in the carpark. Wrenching ourselves out of bed had been bad enough. But now, where was the mountain?
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
