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Carrowkeel - Cairns O and P Cairn O is situated on Doonaveeragh Mountain over looking the village site on the plateau below. It is about 20 meters in diameter and contains a small pentagonal structure which faces south-east. There is only room for one person in this little chamber which is the only sunrise oriented cairn found so far at Carrowkeel. The alignment is probably to the winter solstice sunrise or the summer extreme lunar standstill. As with Cairn B, traces of Macalisters 1911 excavation can be seen here. A ring inside the kerbstones shows how they threw out stones all around the cairn in their search for the entrance.
Looking down onto the Doonaveeragh village plateau from Cairn O. Green oval shapes are the hut sites, about 100 of which have been found here. Cairn P is a small unopened structure 200 meters south-west of Cairn O, situated on the highest point of Doonaveeragh Mountain at 283 meters. Standing on the summit of this cairn and looking out over Cairn O and the village, one can see that the whole mountain points to Knocknarea 25 km away. More than one visitor has been reminded of a gigantic ship upon viewing Doonaveeragh Mountain from the cliffs at the edge of Carrowkeel. Cairn P appears to be on a major line which extends from Kesh Cairn to Sheemore in Co. Leitrim, and possibly across the country to Loughcrew. |
The
view from Cairn P on Doonaveeragh Mountain
across to Cairns
G,
centre and K,
left on Carrowkeel. |
