Carrowmore Tomb 1 - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 13 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 19 - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 2 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 26 - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 27 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 36 - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 37 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 38 - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 4 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 48 - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 49 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 5 - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 52 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 52a - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 53 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 55 - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 56 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 57 - Passage Tomb | Carrowmore Tomb 58 & 59 - Passage Tomb |
Carrowmore Tomb 7 - Passage Tomb | Listoghil - Carrowmore - Passage Tomb |
For now I am making one site of Carrowmore. With around 60 tombs in the complex this is not really a good approach, but I am not sure of the tomb numbers at the moment and so I can't split it up properly. I will do so as soon as I can.
Now. What an outstanding place this is. I was truly dumbstruck as I drove into the area from the south-east and was immediately confronted by 4 passage tombs and kerbs!
The passage tombs here are supposed to be the roots of all passage tombs and stone circles throughout Ireland and Europe. The tombs themselves appear to be passageless (with a few exceptions) and more resemble small portal tombs .
You really have to come here to fully appreciate the madness of the area, with 60 tombs scattered over an area just 1km by .5km.
The weather cleared in the mid to late afternoon and so we decided to head back to Carrowmore. We had planned to just go to tombs 1-7 and 13, but when we arrived the Visitor's Centre was open. I hadn't expected it to be - I seem to have thought that it didn't open until June.
The two euro entry fee is worth it. There is a self-guided tour available - fortunatley this is not an audio thing like you get at places like Stonehenge, for instance, but a simple piece of laminated card with some info on it. There is also a good little booklet available for 5 euro, which is written by the chief excavator of the complex.
As part of our Sligo daytrip we decided to go to Carrowmore. I never mind being here and my wife had never been before.
I really don't know what they're doing to Listoghil right now. It is fenced off and bulldozers and JCBs are tearing the cairn to pieces. I spoke to several people at the site that weren't all that impressed with what's going on either. It certainly ain't pretty!
This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |