Suspected Alignment / Alignments: Winter Solstice Sun-set
Site Type: Passage Tomb
Irish Grid Ref: J0239820332
Location: Link to Bing Maps
This passage tomb is described on wikipedia as follows;
"There are two cairns on top of the mountain, on either side of a small lake. The southern one is a large passage grave, the highest surviving passage grave in Ireland. In 1961, a team of archaeologists explored the site and set up a 30-person camp 600 feet (180 m) below the summit. The passage grave cairn is 30 m (97 ft) wide and 5 m (16 ft) high. The chamber inside is 3.6 m (12 ft) wide, with a corbelled roof up to 4.3 m (14 ft) from the ground. It contained three large blocks of stone seemingly used as basins. Some bits of worked flint and a barbed-end arrowhead were also found, "the meager remnants that survived the centuries of tomb raiding". The entrance is aligned with the setting sun on the winter solstice. Radiocarbon dating suggests it was built c.3500–2900 BCE. The smaller cairn to the north of the lake was built later, perhaps during the Bronze Age. It contains two cist burials, with one containing bits of burnt bone; likely the remains of a single adult.The two cairns were disturbed by American soldiers training there during World War II."
As it says above this is reputed to be Irelands highest passage grave and possibly even the British Isles. I'm not aware of who first proposed this alignment but I first came across when Ken Williams helped document it with some pictures that were posted on www.themodernantiquarian.com (see below).
Links to photographs;
Link to a picture of the alignment on www.themodernantiquarian by contributor Ken Williams
Links for further information;
