View from Cairn B to north Sligo. From left can be seen Croghaun, Knocknarea, Sliabh League in Donegal, Sliabh Da Ean and Benbulben. Below right is Lough Availe. Picture © Leo Regan.

Home Page Guided Tour Map   Cairn A Cairns C & D Cairn E Cairn F Cairn G Cairn H Cairn K Cairn L Cairns M & N Cairns O & P Doonaveeragh   Looking to Cairn B from a small monument, possibly a Bronze Age cist about 400 m north of the cairn. The cist may be a 'boulder burial'.

Treanscrabbagh Cairn B is the first and most prominent cairn as you approach Carrowkeel, perched atop the cliff-walled spur of Treanscrabbagh townland at 260 m A.S.L. 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. 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'. Below the escarpment to the west are the remains of what may be a circular structure or hut site. Cairn B is on a line between Treanmacmurtagh Cairn and Cairn F. Sunrise through the Bricklieve Gap on Jan 6th 2001. Cairn F is on the left, Cairn B on the right. 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. 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. Many people have noticed that these sill stones or thresholds are remarkably similar to sills found on modern sailing vessels. There is a small stone shelf or bench at the back of the chamber. Photo from the opening of Cairn B, 1911. Depending on where you sit at the back of the chamber, the passage is aligned across the Collooney Gap towards Union Hill and Carrowmore. 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. 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.