Sunset
on the autumn equinox as viewed from the flat summit of Cairns
Hill West. |
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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 region, 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 megaliths - 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 comes up 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.
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.
Moonrise on the major lunar standstill in 1987, viewed from Knocknarea. The photo, taken by Leo Regan, shows the moon transversing the Bricklieve Mountains. Conversely, near the winter solstice in 2006, as the Moon sets behind Croughan, 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'. |
View of the full moon rising in January 2011 from Queen
Maeve's Cairn on the summit of Knocknarea. The moon is rising over Cope's Mountain to the northeast. The flat slab is the so-called north marker stone. |
Moonrise at Queen Maeve's Cairn, the massive neolithic monument on the summit of Knocknarea Mountain. The cairn is 55 to 60 meters in diameter and is said to be the final resting place of Queen Maeve, the mythical Iron age ruler of the territory of Connaught. The neolithic mound is at the end of a major power line which passes through both Tara and Loughcrew. |
