Wagner-Kaiser, RMackey, DougalSarajedini, AChaboyer, BrianCohen, Roger EYang, Soung-ChulCummings, Jeffrey DGeisler, DGrocholski, Aaron J2023-06-072023-06-070035-8711http://hdl.handle.net/1885/293368We analyse Hubble Space Telescope observations of six globular clusters in the Large Magel-lanic Cloud (LMC) from programme GO-14164 in Cycle 23. These are the deepest available observations of the LMC globular cluster population; their uniformity facilitates a precise comparison with globular clusters in the Milky Way. Measuring the magnitude of the main-sequence turn-off point relative to template Galactic globular clusters allows the relative ages of the clusters to be determined with a mean precision of 8.4 per cent, and down to 6 per cent for individual objects. We find that the mean age of our LMC cluster ensemble is identical to the mean age of the oldest metal-poor clusters in the Milky Way halo to 0.2 +/- 0.4 Gyr. This provides the most sensitive test to date of the synchronicity of the earliest epoch of globular cluster formation in two independent galaxies. Horizontal branch magnitudes and subdwarf fitting to the main sequence allow us to determine distance estimates for each cluster and examine their geometric distribution in the LMC. Using two different methods, we find an average distance to the LMC of 18.52 +/- 0.05.DM is grateful for support from an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT160100206). DG gratefully acknowledges support from the Chilean BASAL Centro de Excelencia en Astrof´ısica y Tecnolog´ıas Afines (CATA) grant PFB-06/2007.application/pdfen-AU© 2017 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society201710.1093/mnras/stx17022022-03-27