Carrowmore Complex
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This megalithic cemetery is the largest in Ireland and amongst the oldest in Europe. Built around 4600-3900 BC. There were originally over 100 monuments on this site including, chamber tombs, ring forts, cairns and passage graves. There are about 30 sites still worth visiting. Excavations by Swedish Archaeologists which began in 1977 produced radio-carbon dates that may place some of the tombs around 5000BC. A large area of the cemetery is state owned under Duchas the Heritage service, since my first visit the state have acquired even more land on the northern western side of the road opposite the visitors centre.
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I think the best way to visit this site is to go to the visitor centre first and see the tombs on that side of the road (numbers 48 to 59) and then visit the tombs under state ownership on the other side of the road ( numbers 1 to 7) and finally visit the tombs in the surrounding fields. The tombs are known by numbers assigned to them by George Petrie in 1837. Almost all the tombs in Carrowmore that are shown on this web site were originally passage tombs, all that remains of most of them is a boulder circle, some with dolmens or chambers intact others without, some tombs have only the cromleac remaining. Tomb number 1 is a boulder circle with a dolmen in the centre, this tomb is on a slightly raised platform and is over forty feet in diameter it also has an inner circle consisting of smaller stones. |
Tomb 2 |
Field Wall |
All that remains of tomb 2 are the stones pictured above, this tomb was over fifty feet in diameter and lies about twenty feet east of tomb 1.There is also very little to see of tomb 3, the stones were removed and probably used in the surrounding field walls. This tomb was also a dolmen circle and the previous landowner says he remembers the cromleac in the centre before the stones were used in the walls. There is some doubt as to whether tomb 3 even existed. The image left shows some of the boulders used in a field wall between tombs 2 and 4. You can see tombs 1 and 2 in the background of the picture on the left.
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Tomb 4 pictured above was excavated in 1979 and has a radiocarbon date of 4,600 BC making it the oldest tomb on the site. The tomb is over forty feet in diameter and the boulder circle has some twenty eight stones. At the centre of the tomb is a cromleac but the capstone has been displaced. The Cromleac is a double cist and when excavated this tomb produced more finds than any other tomb at Carrowmore. |
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Tomb 5 pictured right, is a fine example of what most of the dolmens would have looked like, it has a capstone supported by five supporting stones about 1.4 metres in height. The boulder circle was also around forty feet in diameter but at present only one of the kerb stones remain. If you look through the chamber you will just make out tomb 7 in the distance.
Tomb 6 is now completely destroyed but was also a dolmen circle type. It is believed the cromleac was destroyed around 1815. |
Tomb 5 |
Tomb 7 is probably one of the most photographed tombs at Carrowmore, it is by far the best example of dolmen and circle in the Carrowmore complex. Excavated in 1978 this tomb gave a date of about 3825 BC. The tomb stands on a manmade platform and this circle is also about forty feet in diameter and consists of thirty two boulders. Opening to the south east the chamber has a small porch which through excavation, has been shown to be part of a passage leading to the chamber. |
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Tomb 9 |
Two hundred and fifty metres north of tomb 7 lies tomb 9, this tomb consists of eight remaining boulders or stones. This tomb is featured in Burls guide to stone circles of Britain and Ireland in which he states that in any other county or country this site would be called a stone circle. As you can see from the image shown left and due to a few 'Beware of the Bull' signs I was unable to get closer to the circle.
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The only parts remaining of tomb 13 are the dolmen pictured right, it also is an excellent example and has a huge capstone resting on six stones. There are a number of other stones next to the dolmen on the western side which may have belonged to the passage. The boulder circle was destroyed by a road running through it, this image was actually taken from that road. |
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Tomb 15 |
Further to the south of this tomb in the corner of the field are a few stones that are the remains of tomb 14.
If you take a left turn right after tomb 13 you will find tomb 15, another boulder circle lying in the same field as tombs 13 and 14. This was a double circle with cromleac about 12 metres in diameter, but only around seventeen stones now remain and scant remains of the dolmen.
Tomb sixteen is also on the left of the road as you head east, it appears to form part of a garden. I will try to get pictures on my next visit. |
As you travel along the road you will come to a cottage on your right. This cottage has been built in the most amazing position, situated between tombs 17 and 18. Pictured right, located up against an out-house and the hedgerow is tomb 17, this tomb is also thought to have been a double circle with inner chamber or dolmen, the outer circle was also partly destroyed by the road.
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Tomb 17 |
Tomb 18 |
On the southern side of the cottage is Tomb 18 another ruined double circle that may have contained a double cist or dolmen that has disappeared since 1837. I think the images shown left and above speaks volumes about our planning laws.
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The picture above shows tomb 19 the largest of all the boulder circles some seventy feet in diameter with 49 stones still visible, originally there were 52 stones. Knocknarea mountain can be seen in the background, on the summit you can make out the great cairn of Miosgan Meadhbha, which is associated with Queen Maeve. |
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Because a lot of the tombs are destroyed it is quite difficult to identify some of them, the tomb on the right is numbered twenty and all that remains now is a small mound with a few boulders scattered around it. It is in the same field as tomb nineteen. The original circle had twelve stones according to George Petrie.
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Tomb 20 |
The tomb above is definitely number twenty six and is located in the same field as tomb number twenty seven. The circle is on the edge of a modern quarry and consists of 30 boulders but origially there may have been 38 boulders. Further into the field is the boulder circle number 27, pictured below. |
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Tomb 27 |
This tomb was another double boulder circle, the inner circle was made up of small stones that are now almost completely covered. This tomb contained a cruciform arrangement of chambers, one of these chambers is shown on the left, you can make out the outer boulder circle in the background.
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