Banner: Knocknarea at Sunset.
Circle 36 on the south side of Carrowmore has a nearly intact ring, but the dolmen has been removed.

Circle 36

Circle 36 is one of the most southerly of the Carrowmore monuments, on private land south of the main complex. This fine monument has never been investigated or excavated in modern times. The monument constists a large, well formed circle nineteen meters in diameter with a level platform or tertre contained within. Circle 32 has fantastic and dramatic views to the south, where Carrowkeel and Keash Corran loom large in the landscape, and south east to the cairn-topped Ballygawley mountains. Knocknarea and Queen Maeve's cairn occupy the western view.

The view to the Ballygawley Mountains from Circle 36.
The view to the Ballygawley Mountains from Circle 36.

This monument has an amazing presence of landscape as a setting for seasonal ritual dramas to unfold as the sun and moon travelled over and back visiting the various magical houses of the goddess on the surrounding summits.

Circle 36 is one of several sites at Carrowmore that seems to have been altered and reused in the bronze age. The integrity of the neolithic circle was broken, perhaps to release the spirits when a stone was pulled from the circle on the southeast side, facing the Ballygawley mountains. The chamber was dismantled and removed, and the monument used for some new form of ritual. Something similar happened at Circle 1, Circle 56, Circle 57 and Circle 26.

Circle 36: - Borlase

No. 36. Situated in the field lying west of thirty-five (dolmen-circle). "This circle is nearly perfect. It now (1837) consists of forty-nine stones, some of which are thrown down and displaced. There were other circles in the vicinity which were also destroyed."

- Petrie.

Circle 36 looking back to the centre of Carrowmore.
Circle 36. To the right is the possible cairn, Site 35. In the top left is the large quarry where several sites were said to have been destroyed.

"A few stones are still scattered about here and there."

- Wood-Martin.

Circle 36 looking back to the centre of Carrowmore.
Circle 36 looking back to the centre of Carrowmore.

No. 36 (a). A few paces to the northeast of 36 (dolmen-cairn encircled).

Monuments 48 and 49 at Carrowmore.
Monuments 48 and 49 at Carrowmore.

Traces of a large cairn, unnoticed by Petrie. The tenant of the land states that when he was quarrying in it for stones he turned up a quantity of bones and charcoal. The central cist is probably yet perfect; if so, this monument might well repay exploration. Traces of a surrounding circle of stones can still be observed.

- Wood Martin.

Circle 36 on the south side of Carrowmore has a perfect circle and platform or tertre. The reconstructed cairn at Listoghil, the central monument at Carrowmore, is on the horizon at the right.