In the beginning of February I sent an email to the OPW requesting early morning opening hours for seven days in March in the hope the Grianan would be open for the alignment at the spring equinox.
I received the reply today and the Grianan is officially open for the equinox:
Dear Bettina,
Thank you for your patience with regard to your query. OPW have been reviewing the arrangements at Grianan of Aileach and a decision has been taken that the site will now accessible during daylight hours. Please see the page on Heritage Ireland where any updates will be posted. This means that you won’t have any problem accessing the monument for sunrise 15th to 22nd March 2024, or on any other day.
I acknowledge you have sent another query since regarding overnight access for lunar events over the next year and we will come back to you separately on that next week.
Kind regards,
Deirdre
This is a much appreciated decision by the OPW and we nearly have fully our Grianan back. As you can see in the reply above, I also applied for overnight opening for observing the full moons during the ongoing major lunar standstill which only occurs every 18.6 years.
So please, keep signing and sharing the petition.
Donegal Daily article is here: