The West Passage

The west passage, which is roughly aligned to region of the equinox sunsets and full moon sets, is about 34 m long. Two large stones, one tall and thin, the other round and bulky (above), stand outside the entrance. These stones are similar in shape to a lot of the avenue stones at Avebury, where the thinner stone is thought to be male, and the rounder shaped stone female. Martin Brennan observed a shadow cast by the taller stone falling on the vertical groove on the entrance stone at sunset around the equinox, and George Eogan uses a slide of this shadow in his talks about Knowth.

The excavators found six oval 'settings' around the entrance, and an array of 'exotic' stones placed on the ground. The function of these settings is unknown. These interesting features have been spotted at other sites such as Cairn T at Loughcrew, Queen Maeve's Cairn at Knocknarea, and outside the entrance to Newgrange. Since the chambers are designed for only a few people at a time, it is quite likely that there were public gatherings outside the entrances on the equinoxes and other festivals. There are areas of cobbeling and stone paving outside both entrances. As at the east entrance, there is plenty of quartz chunks scattered around the area near the entrance.

Decorated stones at the bend in the west passage, from George Eogan's book, Knowth.

As with the eastern entrance, the area at the beginning of the passage was destroyed when a ditch was dug during the Iron age, and several of the passage orthostats were thrown out, some to be re-used in souterrains. Three engraved stones, thought to be from near the entrance of the west passage, were discovered by the excavators in the late 1990's.

The passage runs straight east into the cairn for 25 m before bending slightly to the right at a large carved stone, sill and stone basin. The end of the passage opens into a large chamber marked by a sill stone engraved with a similar set of designs to the entrance stone, stone at the bend of the passage, and the end stone of the chamber. The walls and ceiling are constructed of massive slabs, the ceiling being composed of a single stone. It has been postulated that the kink in the passage is the remains of an earlier structure which was incorporated into the larger mound. A similar, if much more complex 'kink' is found at Dowth north.

Brennan's illustration of the west entrance at Knowth.

A large decorated stone at the bend in the passage (illustrated above) is considered by some to represent a human face, perhaps a guardian of the chamber and passage. It has somewhat human features, but given that all the rest of the art is symbolic and abstract, it is more likely to represent an astronomical occurance, such as a setting full moon illuminating the passageway near an equinox sunrise. Much of the rectangular style of art at Knowth may represent fast moving beams of light. A basin stone, which looks as if someone tried to remove it from the chamber in the past, was found by this strange engraved stone.

Again, as on the eastern side of the mound, access to the passage is restricted to researchers. Anyone interested in viewing the art needs to make an appointment with the Office of Public Works.