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Astronomical Features The Great Cairn of Knocknarea is the focal point of the extensive network of ancient sites in Sligo. It is visible from almost every ancient monument in the area, and some, such as Cairns E and K at Carrowkeel are directly oriented on it. Several astronomical alignments can be identified at Queen Maeve's Cairn, even though the passage and chamber are hidden. Two stones, a large boulder and a flat slab mark a north/south line through the Cairn; another great boulder lies 0.5 km north of the site. Several of the smaller monuments - two ruined monuments and a hut site also lie on this cardinal line. This linear arrangement of monuments has been compared by some archaeologists, such as Bergh, to the layout at Newgrange. When you stand on top of the Cairn on Knocknarea a vast panoramic vista opens before you. From this platform, at sunrise on the equinoxes, the sun rises over Lough Gill in the east, whos name means 'The Lake of Brightness' in Irish. At sunset on the equinoxes, the observer standing on the western cairn at Cairns Hill, just south of Sligo Town, can watch the sun setting over Knocknarea, as shown above. The sun does not set directly behind the cairn on the equinoxes, but the ruined sites arranged in a north/south line would have created a series of bumps and notches which could be used for surveying the sunsets/moonsets. This certainly hints at a kind of ritual astronomy associated with these monuments. This will hold true of any full moon near the equinoxes: they will rise over Lough Gill and set behind Knocknarea. Summer solstice sunset: looking from the cairn called Shee Lugh on Moytura. The sun is setting over Knocknarea. From Queen Maeve's Cairn, the winter solstice the sun rises in the Lough Arrow region over the legendary ridge of Moytura with it's Cairn, Shee Lugh. It is possible that the alignment is to the Hill of Sheemor, which lies beyond Shee Lugh and is visible from Knocknarea on a good clear day, peeping out from the edge of the Arigna Mountains. Of course, the reverse holds true, and the summer solstice sun sets behind Knocknarea when viewed from Shee Lugh, as illustrated in the photo above. This is quite a spectacular landscape alignment - the sun dropping behind the cliffs at Strandhill on the left side of Knocknarea. The sun no longer drops behind the cairn - the obliquity of the ecliptic, the wobble as the Earth spins through space - has offset the alignment by 1.5 degrees, or three solar diameters. Looking west to Knocknarea from a ruined cashel south of Deerpark court cairn at Magheramush. The lunar standstill is probably one of the most important Knocknarea alignments. The Moon's cycle takes 18.6 years to complete as it moves from it's most northerly to it's most southerly positions. At the southern summer rising position when viewed from Queen Maeve's Cairn, the Moon rises over Lough Arrow and crosses the Carrowkeel sites in the Bricklieve Mountains, to set behind the cairn topped hill of Knocknashee. Conversely, near the winter solstice in 2006, as the Moon sets behind Knocknarea, it will illuminate the chambers of four of the Carrowkeel Cairns. This makes some sense of the Irish meaning of Knocknarea, 'The Hill of the Moon'.