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Cairn B is the first and most dramatically sited cairn as you approach Carrowkeel, perched atop the cliff-walled spur in Treanscrabbagh townland at 260 m above sea level. Although it is difficult enough to reach this cairn, it is one of the few here in a good state of repair. The easiest approach to Cairn B is to walk south up the spur of the mountain and keep to the west side of the spur, where a path will allow you to scramble to the top. Any other way involves scaling the cliffs and grappling with the extremely rough growth at the top, which is in keeping with the name of the townland Treanscrabbagh, which means 'The Rough Third'.
Looking south at Cairn B. Note how the entrance and chamber are built well above ground level. Cairn B is 22 metres in diameter, making it one of the larger cairns in the Bricklieve group. Cairns B and F stand like sentinels on the cliffs above the Bricklieve Gap or Lough Availe, which is also known as the Long Mile and the Devil's Bit. Below the escarpment to the west are the remains of what may be a circular structure or hut site, about 20 meters in diameter.
Cairn B is on a straight line between Treanmacmurtagh Cairn and Cairn F. Picture © Leo Regan. Cairn B has, apart from Cairns K and G, the most intact chamber to be found at Carrowkeel, a simple plan with no side recesses, known as an undifferentiated chamber; the passage, about 3 metres long widens to a small chamber. The entrance is high up in the body of the cairn. As with the other Carrowkeel cairns, the chamber is constructed with massive slabs of limestone and has two half-buried sill stones which divide the chamber from the passage. There is an unusual bulge or widening of the passage on the right-hand side of the chamber. Sill stones or thresholds are remarkably similar to sills found on modern sailing vessels. In ancient China, high thresholds were put into doorways to keep bad energies out of buildings. There is a small stone shelf or bench, probably a modern construction, at the back of the chamber.
Photo from the opening of Cairn B, 1911. The workers were frustrated in their attempts to open this monument, and pitched stones out all around the base of the cairn looking for the entrance. Depending on where you sit at the back of the chamber, the passage is aligned across the Collooney Gap towards Union Hill and Carrowmore. If you sit tight up against the right hand wall, you can clearly see Knocknarea. The passage is oriented too far to the north for the sun or moon to shine into; and so it is quite likely that Cairn B is concerned with the setting positions of some of the constellations as they set over Carrowmore.
Megalithic art, recently discovered in Cairn B by Robert Hensey. In 2010 a local archaeologist discovered the first panel of megalithic art recorded at Carrowkeel. The designs, 2 small spirals, are difficult to see with the naked eye, and were discovered by taking numerous photographs at slightly overlaying them. Spirals in megalithic art are thought to represent currents of energy moving theough the chamber. Cairn B is situated on a line between Cairn F and Treanscrabbagh, probably a leyline which extends further in both directions. A note for anyone taking pictures of these monuments in Carrowkeel: the cairns are sites on the northern edges of spurs, particuarly Cairns A and B. This makes getting pictures with an ordinary lens almost impossible, as the ground drops away within a few meters of the cairns. I have often had to resort to pasting two photos together in Photoshop to get a decent picture. |
The
panorama from just south of Cairn B, which is perched above the cliffs
to the right. Kesh Corran and Treanmacmurtagh Cairn are to the right, Doomore, Croghaun and Knocknarea are visible on the horizon. |
