Fourknocks Tomb

Our last megalithic stop in Ireland was Fourknocks, a single mound and passage tomb about ten miles from Newgrange, with an apparent winter solstice orientation. When excavated, it yielded the ashes or bones of some 65, together with a variety of grave goods. Fourknocks' rock art is notable for having, allegedly, the only neolithic representation of a human face. Neither Vicki nor I saw the face, although I took many pix and keep staring at them in hopes of becoming enlightened...

Fourknocks

Getting into Fourknocks proved to be an adventure in itself;
fortunately, Ms. White was at the house

The Key

Damn! I left my Indiana Jones hat in Missoula!

"Gandalf, what's the Elvish word for friend?"

We're in; one of the things we learned from the glow-worms in
New Zealand is that it takes your eyes 7 minutes to adjust...

Panning around

More megalithic art

Lintels; the zig-zaggy stuff is said to be "Iberian"

More

This is the face stone; I don't get it; help me if
you can

Another pretty incredible place, and a great end to our megalithic
adventures in Ireland

Loughcrew Tombs, 2

Continuing our visit to the Loughcrew Tombs...

Now outside, looking at some of the other tombs...there are
25 in all, some complete, some just traces

Interesting to run your fingers over designs your ancient fellows labored over,
6,000 years ago; making these designs was a matter of stone on stone, sometimes
incising with flint, sometimes just pecking away with a stone hammer and stone
chisel

Just before we were there, a small group of interestingly dressed younger persons
visited the area, singing, performing rites, and leaving offerings...

Vicki seated on the Witch's Chair

Looking toward the middle hill, more tombs

Another special place

Loughcrew Tombs, 1

On a ridge of hills some miles west of Bru na Boinne, but still in County Meath, are the Loughcrew Tombs, another of Ireland's 3 or 4 great megalithic centers. The tombs appear to me about midway in age between Carrowmore and Bru na Boinne: smaller undertakings, still passage tombs, often with a dolmen surrounded by a ring, but interestingly carved, and therefore more like their eastern neighbors than those to the west. Cairn T on Carnbane Hill East, is the largest specimen. It's a bit of a trudge climbing up to it, but it is more than rewarding. There are few people willing to make this trip, and you can easily have the place to yourself. OPW staff are helpful but more than willing to stay in their hut out of the fierce wind.

Carin T and a small ring neighbor to the left

The nice OPW ladies will let you borrow a torch if you forgot yours

Corballed ceiling, just like at Newgrange

Bru na Boinne, 2016: Knowth

We also visited Knowth in 2009, but did not post much. So here is a fraction of the megalithic art there, nearly all of it on the kerbs.

Knowth and two its satellites

Again, it's the very large curb stones that present the "art"

Here are just a few...there are a couple score, I guess, Knowth by far the major
concentration of megalithic art so far discovered

The environs

More rocks

The "sun dial" stone

Now inside the great tomb, looking at a side view

Comparison of Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth

Knowth has the longest of all known megalithic corridors; interestingly, to me,
it is oriented toward the equinoxes, not the solstices, so that the sunrise of the
vernal equinox comes in one entrance, and the sunset of the autumnal equinox
comes in the other; so why the equinoxes? you ask...well, I guess, they didn't
have the Farmer's Almanac back then, and, especially if you were a novice
farmer, which everyone was, it would be good to know when to sow, when to
reap; I guess

Newgrange not far away

More rocks

More satellites

Special among the special places