Newgrange in Ireland is a world famous monument not only because of its vast scale and copious megalithic art, but also because of its renowned alignment to the morning sun on the winter solstice. Yet its origins remain the subject of debate. Robert Hensey presents a new narrative, one that can be told for the first time because of a new dating programme undertaken at the Carrowmore passage tomb complex, from which we finally have reliable evidence for the use of passage tombs in the northwest of Ireland approximately half a millennium before Newgrange was constructed.The book begins by outlining significant differences in the morphological grammar of passage tombs, exposing meaningful correspondences between particular ritual acts and specific monument types. A new model for categorising and comprehending passage tombs is presented. Explanations for developments in passage tomb construction and role are considered. A number of interweaving insights are explored: that modern-day rituals at passage tombs can shed light on rituals of the past; that human bones may have been deposited at Newgrange for reasons other than burial; that rites of separation were a central activity at certain passage tombs; that the sea had an important ideological role in the passage tomb tradition; and that Newgrange may have been central to public ceremony and questions of leadership in Neolithic society.Challenging both orthodox archaeological opinions and popular conjecture, this will be an important book for anyone interested in Neolithic archaeology.