As I began to feel better, we drove over to the Carrowmore Tombs. Very briefly, the megalithic center seems to have been devoted strictly to burials--usually burials of ashes--in dolmens, often within stone circles. The main activity among the 30-40 monuments has been dated between 4,000 BC and 3,000 BC, making it significantly older than the larger and more complex center to the east, the Bru na Boinne, Newgrange and Knowth (we'll get there), and others. Some few sites at Carrowmore have been C14 dated to 5,500 BC, which would make them about as old as anything we have seen from the neolithic. The largest of the Carrowmore Tombs is C51, a cairned passage tomb, now open, but almost like a little Newgrange. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
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| C51, from a distance |
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| Vicki with Knocknarea behind her in the distance |
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| And me |
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| C51 again |
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| Entry to C51 |
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| C51 interior |
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