Carrowmore is found in a unique piece of geography, the Cuil Irra (Coolrea) peninsula, a triangle of land bounded by water on three sides. Ballisodare Bay lies to the south, the Atlantic ocean to the west and Sligo Bay to the north. Lough Gill is to the east beyond Carns Hill, connected to the sea by the Shelly river which is only 5 km long, flowing from Lough Gill through Sligo Town and into the sea. Keep Reading
Bryn Celli Ddu is one of the finest passage tombs in Wales. Indeed it is both a passage and burial chamber, buried under a mound. It is only a boat and bike trip from Dublin, and this makes me wonder about the people who built it.
Discovering the Grianan of Aileach was a shock. Why had this impressive and beautiful structure failed to knock on the door of my general knowledge? There it curved in front of me, so extraordinarily well preserved. What a mystery! Yet a small amount of research later revealed some of the reasons why this site has not been wholeheartedly promoted by history experts.
Now in the soggy remains of a bog the court tomb in Cloghanmore may have been built originally in good agricultural land.
This one is subtle. It looks like a big decorative slab. Nothing fancy and yet it is an ancient standing stone. Something precious in an environment which is somewhat less subtle.
Thousands of megaliths, such as Newgrange and Stonehenge, are found throughout Europe. Where were the first of these built? Bettina Schulz Paulsson of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden analysed the dates from over 2000 megaliths in Europe, and has made a suggestion where these were first built.
At Kilclooney near Ardara in Donegal there are three portal tombs and the remains of a court tomb. The famous Dolmen has a capstone 6 metres long. Close to this dolmen is a much smaller collapsed portal tomb.
Sheep Island is an island off the north coast of Ireland in County Antrim. But it is not the only Sheep Island around. …
Carrowkeel is located near Lough Arrow, overlooking the village of Castlebaldwin. While famed for its neolithic sites, it is also a great example of glaciation.
The excellent voicesfromthedawn.com blog offers an interesting insight into a literary sensation of the 1760’s. James Macpherson claimed that a series of books including “Fingal, a Poem in Six Books” were merely a translation of a third century poet called Ossian. But he was less forthcoming when asked to present these ancient manuscripts. Keep Reading