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The dramatic view across Clew Bay from the top of Croagh Patrick, taken from the tumbled cashel walls. The circular green indentations in the foreground are found all around the summit. They may be the remains of huts where ancient pilgrims camped. |
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Sligo megalithic sites Guided
Tours Sacred
Island, The Old Barracks, Cliffoney, County Sligo, Ireland.
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I haven't had much time to work on this website in recent years- I got distracted by a fiddle a few years ago after discovering the music of The Bothy Band. I have also been working as an organic gardener, and work as a community gardener growing vegetables with groups. However, after several years of neglect I intend to put some work into the site again.
I originally became interested in these sites for their wonderful megalithic engraved symbols, which are the oldest written 'documents' in Ireland (3,500 - 3,000 BC). I have been working on the solar and lunar alignments which illuminate interiors of monuments, the beautiful landscape settings in which they are located, the wealth of mythological tales associated with these ancient structures. This website is a mixture of art, symbolism, archaeology, mythology and astronomical alignments - with a good dash of Irish traditional music coming soon. I spent many years living below the neolithic cairns of Carrowkeel in the Bricklieve Mountains, near Lough Arrow, in south Co. Sligo, a very beautiful part of the West of Ireland. The Carrowkeel cairns contain chambers built of limestone slabs, several of which have corbelled roofs, which can best be described as artificial caves. Many are aligned to important rising or seting positions of the heavenly bodies, or to another monument on the horizon. There are 25 cairns in and around the Bricklieves, but many more sites are visible on nearby hills and mountains, most of which have important mythic associations. There is also a remarkable neolithic village on the flat plateau of Doonaveeragh Mountain and an amazing series of caves in the side of the enchanted hill of Kesh Corran in the Bricklieves.
Ireland's largest group of monuments is found at Carrowmore, 3 km south-west of Sligo town, on a plateau at the centre of the Coolrea Peninsula. Here the remains of some 60 boulder circles with dolmen structures have been identified as one of the largest and oldest groups of ancient monuments in Europe. The site has its own website now, located at www.carrowmore.com on these pages. Carrowmore is overshadowed to the west by Knocknarea mountain which is capped by Queen Maeve's Cairn. Two more massive unopened cairns are located on Cairns Hill to the east of Carrowmore. The next great collection of Cairns are at Loughcrew, 'The Mountains of the Hag' in Co. Meath. What remains is one of Ireland's most spectacular sites, rich with early megalithic art. Two of the Loughcrew monuments have well documented astronomical orientations: Cairn T - the central monument is oriented to the sun and moon rises on the equinoxes; Cairn L is oriented to the sunrises in the first few days of November and February.
There are many, many monuments beside these, which I am adding to my clickable Map of Ireland. Along the way you will encounter several other clickable maps which will take you into greater detail within an area. There are also several field trips and news articles on the site, which I add to when I get a chance. Enjoy your visit! Slán, Martin, 3 Feburary 2010 |
| The summit of Knocknarea, Co Sligo. The view is of the massive Queen Maeve's Cairn, one of the largest neolithic monuments in the west of Ireland. Picuure taken from the remains of one of the smaller satellite cairns on the summit. |
Last
update: 23
January 2010
