Knocknarea viewed from a ruined wedge monument at the foot of Copes Mountain. Looking southwest.
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Knocknarea is the most prominent and beautiful Mountain in County Sligo, it's only possible rival being the majestic plateau of Benbulben (see picture at bottom of page). The Hill of Knocknarea, a limestone hum, rises to 320 meters a.s.l. at the west end of the Coolrea Peninsula. Knocknarea is surrounded by water on three sides, and looks out across the Atlantic Ocean in the west. It can be truly said to dominate the landscape of Sligo, which is probably why it was a site of such importance to the ancient Irish: it is highly visible from many of the other sites in the area. The summit of the Mountain is capped by Queen Maeve's Cairn, which is certainly the best known megalithic monument in Ireland apart from Newgrange. This reminder of the ancient past looms over Sligo town like a flying saucer frozen in motion; it has been said that by placing the cairn where they did, the ancients transformed the mountain into a monument. On days when the clouds dip down to touch the summit, the cairn dissappears and the mountain looks much less spectacular.
Knocknarea Mountain and Ballisodare Bay as seen from Union Hill, Collooney, Co Sligo. The cairn has never been excavated and was lucky to escape in the last century, when several of its satellite monuments and many of the sites at Carrowmore were investigated by Roger Walker, a local landlord and antiquarian. Walker had plans to tackle the great cairn, but died before he could put them into effect. There are five other megaliths and the foundations of a hut on the summit of Knocknarea; three are small ruined cairns south of the great cairn, and one cruciform chamber about 200 meters to the north another small ruined chamber is found about 400 meters to the south at the edge of the summit. A seventh ruined boulder circle is found about 1 km to the east on the lower tier of the mountain. Over the summer of 1999 Stefan Bergh discovered around twenty seven hut sites on the summit and south shoulder of Knocknarea, as well as some 4 kilometers of neolithic stonewalls. The walls run along the south and east edges of the summit, and mark a boundry on the sides of the mountain that are accessible from below. Both the huts and walls had thousands of pieces of worked chert of various sizes within them. These pieces of chert were probably used as chisels for the construction of wooden implements, wattle, baskets and, down by the shore, boats. Knocknarea is the western portion of a larger complex of monuments which includes nearby Carrowmore and Cairns Hill to the east. Carrowmore, Ireland's largest collection of megaliths is at the centre of this triple complex. Each of the four great passage cairn complexes follows the same east/west triple layout. |
Knocknarea and Benbulben viewed from Doomore Cairn in the Ox Mountains.
