Home Guided Tours Map Email   Lough Arrow Carrowkeel Kesh Corran Caves of Kesh Kesh Cairn Heapstown Cairn Sheereevagh Cairnanweeleen Moytura The Labby Rock Shee Lugh

Knocknashee is a beautiful table-top mountain in south west Sligo, which rises suddenly from the drumlin plain to dominate the surrounding area. It will be a familiar sight to anyone who passes up and down the N17 between Tubbercurry and Collooney. Two neolithic cairns are located within a huge enclosure which covers the flat top of the mountain. There are also some 30 hut foundations similar to those found recently on Knocknarea, and the large collection of huts at Doonaveeragh in Carrowkeel. An aerial view of the flat summit of Knocknashee, showing the cairns and hutsites on the lower right. The Bronze age ditch is visible running along the lower part of the picture. The summit is 300 meters above sea level. Knocknashee is also in fact, one of Ireland's largest Bronze Age hillforts, having three huge ditches running around the hill, one at the top, middle and bottom. Building neolithic chambered cairns on hill-tops within stone enclosures in the west of Ireland seems to have been at least as common as building monuments within enclosures was in the Boyne Valley. There is another cairn and enclosure on the summit of Muckelty Hill just a few km south east of Knocknashee.