Carrowkeel: Our last afternoon out West

Of all European lands I venture to say that Ireland is the most mystical, and, in the eyes of true Irishmen, as much the Magic Island of Gods and Initiates now as it was when the Sacred Fires flashed from its purple, heather-covered mountain-tops and mysterious round towers, and the Greater Mysteries drew to its hallowed shrines neophytes from the West as well as from the East, from India and Egypt as well as from Atlantis; and Erin's mystic-seeing sons still watch and wait for the relighting of the Fires and the restoration of the old Druidic Mysteries. Herein I but imperfectly echo the mystic message Ireland's seers gave me, a pilgrim to their Sacred Isle. And until this mystic message is interpreted, men cannot discover the secret of Gaelic myth and song in olden or in modern times, they cannot drink at the ever-flowing fountain of Gaelic genius, the perennial source of inspiration which lies behind the new revival of literature and art in Ireland, nor understand the seeming reality of the fairy races.

W. Y Evans Wentz, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, 1911

 

 

 



 Prior to heading out to Mayo, its beaches and the Jackie Clarke exhibit, I had also heard about evidence of the most ancient civilization in Ireland, so I did a bit of exploring and found a "Megalithic Cemetary" on the map.

 

We headed there on the "famine roads"* straight away.

 

 

Around Sligo there was clearly a huge settlement of Stone Age people. We visited the Carrowkeel cemetery but there are several others including also Carromore as well as many individual sites in the area. These tombs are among the oldest in Ireland -- even older than Newgrange, ranging from 5 to 6 thousand years old.

 

Carrowkeel is one of the big four passage tomb cemetaries in Ireland (along with Brú na Bóinne, Lough Crew, and Carrowmore).  There are fourteen passage tombs in Carrowkeel.

 

Here is a view from above.

 

And a map of the area.

Here is one below. What you see is called a Cairn (not the little rock sculptures I am used to on trails around the world!). These are just like the one at Newgrange but smaller. They are piles of rocks over the tombs that these ancient people built on hills.

The Cairns were surrounded by stone circles.

You could see the Cairns on the tops of all of the surrounding hills, an indication of the immensity of the ancient civilization.** I wish I had had three days to explore this area.

This circle and mound is clearly another undisturbed cairn and tomb.

 

Surprisingly, anyone can walk in and around them any time. I went into several tombs. They are much smaller than Newgrange both in width and height. I had to crawl into the two that I entered, but once in, I could stand erect in the tomb and see the corbelled ceilings.

 

When you head up from the car park, the first tomb you see is tomb G. This is a "classic Irish passage tomb, consisting of a short passage leading to a central chamber with three equally spaced side chambers." The best part about this one you can see in the picture below -- like Newgrange, it has a roofbox. It is thought that this is the only other one in Ireland with a roofbox. This one is oriented and aligned with the midsummer sunset.

Here is a great website about Carrowkeel and all of the nearby Mesolithic sites. And here is a map of just Carrowkeel and all of its tombs.

 

Here is G, its roofbox and kerbstone. 

I crawled into it to find this. Note that we are approaching the summer solstice (as evidenced by the 19 hour days!) and I could see into the chamber with just the sunlight.

Looking back at the light from the roofbox.

 Here is a plan of Cairn G.

Here is Cairn H.

"Cairn H is about 75 metres south of Cairn G and is in a pretty ruined state with a damaged roof and caved in chamber. When Macalister dug this monument in 1911 it was recorded as being nearly 30 metres in diameter, which would make it the largest monument of the group. However, H, like most of the other cairns about 20 metres in diameter. It has a double row of kerbstones one kerb 2 metres inside the other, the only such example in Carrowkeel. It is worth having a look around this cairn: there is a small mound which may be the remains of a Bronze age cist to the right of the entrance, and what appears to be a collapsed dolmen a few meters to the south."

Peeking in at tomb H and K.

And Cairn K.

As I said, I needed about three days to really explore this place. But the kids were calling and we were heading back to Dublin.




*By 1847 the famine was raging, particularly in Western Ireland, so the English Parliament passed the Labour Rate act to Ireland. The act enabled the Irish to tax themselves and to provide employment. Also granted was $100,000 to benefit those areas that were too destitute to even raise money at all. The remaining money (after the salaries of the distributers of the monies was taken out!) was paid to starving men for doing unprofitable public work. The 'unprofitable" was a noted stiputation in the Act. Among other things, the Irish could not build Irish railways because this would discriminate against English railway builders. They could not seed lands because this might give the Irish farmer and advantage over the English farmer and enable him to fare better in the market. The money could only be used, and was only used, to build roads where nobody ever traveled, to have them start anywhere and end nowhere, or to erect bridges where there was no river.

 Here is a poem by Eavan Boland on the topic as well as a Youtube interpretation.


**
Six more passage tombs are located close by in the Keshcorran complex.

Close to Lough Arrow and just north of Carrowkeel is another, apparently related, giant passage tomb, Heapstown Cairn. This is part of the legendary Moytura, site of battles between the Tuatha Dé Danann, the ancient gods of Ireland, and the demonic Fomorians.