A watercolour of Dowth by Gabriel Beranger in 1775. The mound appears to have been the tallest of the three big cairns, and has Lord Netterville's tea house sitting on the summit in the illustration. Today the site has a gaping crater where is was extensively quarried.

Sacred Island Carrowkeel Cairn B Cairn E Cairn F Cairn G Cairn K Cairn O Summer solstice Doonaveeragh Village Heapstown cairn Lough Arrow Sheereevagh Caves of Kesh Kesh Cairn Knocknarea Carrowmore Moytura Newgrange Winter Solstice Knowth Satellites at Knowth Art at Knowth Equinoxes Site 2 Site 3 Site 4 Site 5 Site 6 Site 7 Site 8 Site 9 Site 10 Site 11 Site 12 Site 13 Site 14 Site 15 Site 16 Site 17 Macalister's Newgrange Cursus at Newgrange Flight of the Pheonix Tom Ray article Loughcrew Equinox sunrise Samhain sunrise Cairn D Cairn H Cairn I Cairn U Cairn S Cairn W Kells Kilmonaster Sheemor Knocknashee Muckelty Hill Boa Island Kilclooney Timoney stones Turoe stone Castlestrange Hill of Uisneach The Glen of Knocknarea Culeenamore Barnasrahy Abbeyquarter Tobernalt Easkey Benbulben Creeveykeel The Labby Rock Tobernaveen Doomore Croughan Sliabh da Ean Tara Fourknocks Croagh Patrick Cong Knockma The Burren Uisneach Rathcroghan Glencolumbkille Inishmurray

Dowth - The House of Darkness Dowth is said to be the oldest of the three great cairns in the Boyne Valley and is a truely fascinating site. The highest of the three monuments, the top of the mound is 87m above sea level. Dowth sits on the west end of a long ridge 2 km east of Newgrange. The view from the top of Dowth to Newgrange. Mythology The Irish name for Dowth is Dubad, which means 'Darkness'. In the mythology of the Boyne Valley, Dowth is the Brú of the Druid Bresal, who is attempting to build a great tower which could reach up to the heavens. Bresal employs all the men of Ireland to build the tower in a single day, and to this end his sister casts an enchantment that the sun will not set until the tower is complete. However, her brother is overcome with lust and commits incest with her, breaking the enchantment and causing the sun to set before the tower is built. 'Night has come upon us', laments his sister, 'and Dubad shall be the name of this place forever'. This mythological origin of the name fits the cairn as both the internal passages are oriented to sunsets, one to Samhain when the sun 'dies' for the year as it goes underground, the other to the longest night of the year, the winter solstice sunset. Plan of Dowth from 1969 by Claire and Michael O'Kelly. The cairn is of similar dimensions to Newgrange being about 85m in diameter and 15m high. It is bounded by a kerb of up to 100 stones, some of which are engraved. The site is somewhat dishevelled and neglected - the mound was extensively quarried in the past and there is great crater at the centre, the result of an excavation in the last centuary. The illustration (top of page) by Gabriel Beranger in 1775 shows the cairn with nearly twice the volume of stones present today, with Lord Netterville's summer house perched at the top. The kerb is covered by mound slip in many places, and the original entrance to the North chamber is buried in the ajoining field to the west. The site has not been excavated yet, though the National Monuments Service purchased the site in 1998 and are planning to begin work on the mound in the near future. There are several monuments nearby: two small ruined chambered mounds lie to the east, and beyond them is a massive henge type enclosure, one of the largest in Ireland. To the south west of Dowth are three chambered mounds in a line, two circular and one long mound which may be related in form and structure to Cairn E at Carrowkeel.

A photo of the mound of Dowth from the 1960's. Taken from Newgrange, the book by Michael O'Kelly.