Irish Passage Graves

In Ireland this world and the world we go to after death are not far apart.

W. B. YEATS.

Passage-graves are the most interesting of the Irish megalithic monument, being by far the most complex type of monument found on this island. Passage-graves, which first appear on the continent about 4,600 BC, are ritual burial monuments built of stone, containing internal chambers which are artificial caves. These chambers vary in size from the smaller and earlier free-standing dolmens found at Carrowmore to the massive arched vaults of Newgrange and Knowth.

Early Monuments

Early examples of passage graves begin to appear in Irish coastal areas from around 4,000 BC. Groups of neolithic farmers begin to arrive in large numbers and erect monuments at significant locations within the landscape. The first wave of settlers appear to have arrived in Ireland in the Sligo region, constructing the large causewayed enclosure at Magheraboy around 4,150 BC. The quite surreal passage-grave at Abbeyquarter on the edge of Sligo Town may be one of the oldest monuments. Archaeological test digs at Rathquarter directly across the river uncovered four pits which were dated to the early neolithic, about 4,200 BC, from numerous fragments of charcoal mixed with the fill. A number of fragments of cardial ware, an early type of neolithic cooking pot were also found in these pits.

Carrowmore - the Foundation Complex

It is likely that the construction of a sacred precinct at Carrowmore began very early, with dates of 4,100 indicating activity on the platform under the focal monument, Listoghil, according to chief excavator, the late Göran Burenhult. Burenhult, during his two programmes of excavations at Carrowmore, extracted a series of extremely early dates from samples of charcoal found at several monuments, which may date from mesolithic activities in this area. It is believed that the neolithic farmers tended to occupy areas sacred to the hunter-gatherers when erecting their monuments which by their nature, enclose spaces.

Though the monuments at Carrowmore are though not very large themselves, they are designed and arranged on a colossal scale. When the complex was complete, before the land-clearances of the last 300 years, Carrowmore consisted of a huge oval cluster of at least forty early passage graves arranged around the focal monument, the largest chamber and circle erected around 3,600 BC on the huge early platform at Listoghil.

The Carrowmore monuments are an early free-standing form of passage grave where the chamber is viewed from outside. The chamber is constructed on a raised platform or tertre, which is bounded by a ring of contiguous kerb stones; the chamber is connected to the circle by a two-dimensional passage, a symbolic way of connecting the World of the Living to the Land of the Dead or the Otherworld. Indeed, these structures may best be understood as physical constructs which represent a non-physical space, using the most enduring medium, stone.

Many of the Carrowmore monuments were opened by local landlord and antiquarian, Roger Walker in the 1830's and 1840's, and while Walker did not keep good records of his activities, we do know that he commonly found cremated human remains in the smaller chambers at Carrowmore. These small chambers seem to be designed to contain human remains, though why we do not know. It would seem that only a small percentage of the neolithic population was buried in such monuments. One fairly small monument, Carrowmore 3 was found to contain some 33.5 kilograms of cremated bone, which is believed to be the remains of some fifty individuals.

At Carrowmore the monuments are constructed using gneiss boulders, glacial erratics carried down from the valleys in the Ballygawley Mountains to the south east. These gneiss boulders, studded with chunks of quartz, are some of the oldest rocks in Ireland. In the local folklore the rocks were collected by the Cailleach, Garavogue, the sorceress who lives in Cailleach a Bherra's House, the passage-grave on the lowest summit of the Ballygawley hills. She gathered the rocks in her white apron, and as she flew from summit to summit she dropped her rocks and formed the circles.

Carrowmore is the first of four great clusters or 'cemeteries' of passage graves in Ireland: the others are at Carrowkeel, Loughcrew and in the Boyne Valley. A fifth cluster or complex, though quite ruined, is found at Kilmonaster in County Donegal, where a number of monuments were constructed from large quartz boulders. There are many more unopened mounds and cairns on the island, including the sites around Cong, Knockma and on the northern summits of the Burren. Monuments are also found all through the summits of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains. The oldest monument on the celebrated Hill of Tara is the passage grave known as the Mound of the Hostages.

Carrowkeel

While Carrowmore was discovered and mapped by early antiquarians, and given a full description by George Petrie for the Ordnance Survey, Carrowkeel evaded attention until almost modern times. Though the cairns and chambers at Carrowkeel, constructed of local limestone, are of quite a different character and nature to the monuments at Carrowmore, they are set in an equally if not more stunning landscape across the summits of the Bricklieve Mountains.

The two regions, Cuil Iorra and Lough Arrow are connected by the River Uinshin, the watery highway of the neolithic. By the time Carrowkeel was founded around 3,600 BC, the chamber at Listoghil, the focal monument at Carrowmore was being constructed on a massive platform or tertre. A research project which I am involved with suggests that the impetus for founding Carrowkeel may have come from a total solar eclipse which was visible in the skies above Sligo about that time.

If the neolithic colonists are migrating from France because of rising sea levels and natural disasters, it is quite likely that an event such as a total solar eclipse would have been viewed with tremendious interest if not anxiety. Some of the human remains in Listoghil at Carrowmore had been disarticulated and de-fleshed, and I am tempted by the idea of a ritual specialist or messanger undergoing special burial treatment in preparation for a voyage to the World of the Dead to intercede.

What are likely to be the earliest monuments are found on the highest parts of the Bricklieves, the Speckled Mountains on the west shore of Lough Arrow, where there are several simple chambers and passages on a raised platform or tertre and surrounded by a kerb. Examples of these simpler monuments are Cairn M, Cairn N, Cairn X ( below Cairn G ) and monuments at Lough na Leibe and Sheecor. However, access to better building materials at Carrowkeel resulted in the construction of some of the most amazing works of architecture to survive from the neolithic world.

The builders constructed chambers using quarried limestone slabs, which were covered by a limestone cairn. The cruciform chamber of Cairn K, with its fine corbeled vault and solid cairn, was probably covered by a thick mantle of quartz. Cairn F, a double cruciform chamber oriented to due north, had a massive vaulted corbeled ceiling which collapsed in antiquity, and an unusual standing stone. The beautifully constructed chamber of Cairn G has an opening over the entrance which provides a fine view of the horizon from within the monument, and enables an observer to monitor a wide range of midsummer sunsets and midwinter moon-sets, and is an early prototype of a neolithic roofbox, being some 300 years older than the example at Newgrange.

The monuments were crudely investigated by Macalister and Praegar in 1911 when the remains of some sixty people, both cremated and un-cremated, were found in seven chambers. These bones were rediscovered by Dr. Alison Sheridan in 2003, and have been the subject of a series of carbon dating and Ancient DNA analysis, by Dr. Lara Cassidy - with fascinating results. Sadly, the Carrowkeel cairns, wonders of the neolithic world, are eroding rapidly due to the effects of mass tourism.

Passage-graves tend to come in many shapes and forms while still managing to follow a fairly strict template or format. In Ireland it can be clearly seen that the earlier monuments have a simpler form with a burial chamber designed to be seen from outside. From Carrowkeel onwards the monuments tend to increase in size and complexity as they move eastwards.

The Mound of the Hostages

A good example is the Mound of the Hostages, the oldest visible monument on the celebrated Hill of Tara in County Meath. The monument had an early phase about 3,600 BC, where the stone chamber was a free-standing structure. The chamber, which is roughly oriented to the sunrises in early November and February or even the minor lunar standstills, was surrounded by timber structures and ditches. After a period of time the chamber was covered by a cairn and at a later time again this cairn was covered with a thick mantle of soil. Passage-graves can go through many phases of development, amendments and additions.

When the Mound of the Hostages was excavated in the 1950's, it was believed to be a bronze age barrow like many of the other monuments on the hilltop. The excavation revealed the existence burial chamber, which was literally stuffed with human remains and interesting relics and artefacts. Numerous examples of bone and red deer antler pins, jewellery and pottery were discovered dating from extensive use in the neolithic. The sanctity of the monument was retained during the bronze age, when a large number of individual burials were inserted into the fabric of the monument and into the neolithic burials within the chamber. In total, the assemblage of burials and artefacts from this monument were among the richest ever discovered in Ireland.

Loughcrew: Art and Astronomy

One of the best known aspects of the passage graves is the wonderful engraved art, a mysterious symbolic language that can seem strikingly modern. These engravings are the earliest writings in Ireland and among the oldest in Europe, dating from about 3,600 - 3,000 BC. They are documents in stone written in a language which seems to incorporate astronomical events such as eclipses and conjunctions, illuminated by the light and motion of the heavens at key sun rises and sunsets. Seeing the engraved symbols at Loughcrew illuminated by brilliant sunlight at sunrise or sunset is a most convincing argument.

Early examples of megalithic art have been discovered at Carrowmore, Carrowkeel and at Heapstown, but the earliest large cluster of megalithic art is found at Sliabh na Cailleach, the Loughcrew hills in County Meath. Here lie the scattered remains of at least thirty neolithic passage graves ranging from early platform monuments, such as Cairn V to complex chambers covered by cairns at Cairn T and Cairn L, both of which have many engraved stones and significant astronomical alignments.

That these engravings deal with astronomical themes is demonstrated when the artwork is illuminated by the light of the sun or moon at a chosen time in the cycle of the body in question. This is demonstrated within Cairns L and Cairn T when the rising sun interacts with the engraved symbols creating a powerful bi-annual display of cosmology. Both alignments at Loughcrew were noted by American archaeo-astronomer and author Martin Brennan and his co-researcher Jack Roberts. Their work helped demonstrate that there was significantly more to these monuments than burial.

Shortly after sunrise on the equinoxes a beam of light sweeps into the cruciform chamber of Cairn T, penetrating the innermost recess which has a finely carved and intricate set of designs. The sunlight moves across the panel focusing and highlighting different symbols as the patch of light narrows. The alignment in Cairn L, one kilometer to the west, takes place at sunrise on Samhain and Imbolc—the November and February cross-quarter days. A beam of light is projected into the chamber as the sun rises over the cairn on Sliabh Rua, and strikes the top of a mysterious limestone pillar known as the Whispering Stone. The beam of light slides off the pillar and illuminates a wonderful panel of art carved within the largest recess.

Once again we find the myth of the Hag or Witch or Cailleach flying across the hills with her apron full of stones and it should come as no surprise that the monuments are built from slabs of stone extracted from sandstone erratics. We even have the name of the Cailleach, Garavogue, as she is mentioned in a poem from 1720 by Johnathan Swift.

Mega-mounds: the Boyne Valley

The most famous stone age or neolithic monument in Ireland is Newgrange, one of three huge mounds found overlooking the River Boyne in County Meath. Though these massive late neolithic monuments are both the largest and most complex passage-graves in Europe, they still have the same basic qualities and grave goods found in Carrowmore, Carrowkeel and Loughcrew, but each reaching a pinnacle of achievement. There is simply nothing to compare with the size, complexity and quality of megalithic art found in the Boyne Valley; while at the other sites the landscape dominates the monuments, here the reverse is true and the monuments dominate their surroundings.

Earlier, smaller and less complex monuments are found here in plenty, surrounding the three huge mounds. Cairn K, in the field west of Newgrange, began as a free-standing chamber on a platform. At a later time the passage was extended, a cairn added, and a ditch dug around the monument. There are many simpler 'undifferentiated' monuments and chambers at Knowth, which mimics the layout of Carrowmore on a much smaller scale with a much larger focal monument. Knowth has the longest megalithic passages and the largest collection of artwork in the world.

Dowth is thought to be the oldest of the three huge monuments, mainly because it seems earlier and slightly cruder than the other two monuments, which have both been excavated and reconstructed. Dowth remains unexcavated and retains an aura of great antiquity. The 'caves' within the mound were plundered by the Danes, and the mound was used as a quarry in the 1840's. There are several smaller mounds close by, and in 2018 another sizable passage-grave, some forty meters in diameter was discovered under Dowth Hall.

Knowth, the most complex of the three huge monuments, was excavated by George Eoghan over nearly fifty years. The colossal cairn contains two of the longest passages in the corpus of all known passage-graves, while the east chamber, a marvel of engineering, was built around a huge and finely carved stone basin which seems to commemorate an eclipse or some other significant celestial event.

Most of the kerb-stones at Knowth are engraved—it has the largest collection of megalithic art in Europe—there is nothing to compare with it. Many of the carvings would seem to be glyphs and diagrams of the cycles and phases of the sun and moon. The massive central monument, known from excavations to have been built in at least two phases, is surrounded by some twenty 'satellite' monuments in a layout that harks back to Carrowmore and the first colony.

Newgrange

Almost all Irish neolithic monuments have quartz used in them in some form, either in the orthostats and building stones, or as facing on the facade of the monument as at Newgrange. The huge monument, Ireland's most famous tourist attraction, underwent a contraversial restoration after a period of excavations overseen by Michael O'Kelly.

Large quantities of quartz, which had been transported here from Wicklow, were found at the lowest layer of the collapsed mound and spill. O'Kelly interpreted this as a vertical wall, and after some experimentation, a wall was erected using a four meter slab of reinforced concrete to hold up the quartz. It is highly unlikely that Newgrange ever looked like its modern shape in the neolithic.

It is highly unlikley that such a wall could have stood for long in the neolithic, and indeed the quartz may well have been the platform or tertre under the great cairn.

Newgrange today is just as famous for its contraversial restoration as for its precise alignment and orientation to the rising sun over the days of the winter solstice. The ray of light passes through a specially constructed opening over the portal, which O'Kelly dubbed a 'roof-box'. The sunbeam penetrates the chamber through a passage twenty meters in length.

Quartz

Most of the chambers at Carrowmore had fragments and chunks of quartz mixed up with cremated human remains. One monument, Circle 4 had a pendant made from a piece of clear rock crystal. In the ditch of the chambered causeway at Magheraboy, close to Carrowmore, a stone axe was found buried with a ring of thirty-six chunks of white quartz, almost like a model oe a small simulcrum of a monument.

Many neolithic passage-graves had names such as Fin Cairn and Cairn Ban, both of which mean White Cairn. Quartz has been regarded as a sacred stone by many cultures around the world and was a key component of modern computer driven technology. Quartz was known as Grian Cloch, meaning Sun Stone to the ancient Irish. It is highly likely that the ancients viewed crystallised sunlight as a metaphor for the spirit within the body,

The traditions which still survive in Ireland today of covering graves with quartz chippings go back a long, long way. At Loughcrew, the quartz mantle was taken during the Penal times and broken up to spread on graves.

Grave Goods

Items recovered in with the burials in passage-graves tend to follow the same fairly strict pattern and range. Commonly found are chalk and stone spheres, stone pendants and bone or antler pins, broken pottery, pieces of flint and pieces of quartz. There are examples of the spheres from several sites on display in the National Museum, including two mysterious artifacts found under the basin in Cairn L, Loughcrew. A crude type of pottery known as Carrowkeel Ware since it was first classified there in 1911, is often found with the burials.

Pendants are believed to have been hung around the neck, and Michael Herity's Irish Passage Graves has a photograph of a model wearing a selection of pendants from the Mound of the Hostages at Tara. A fine quartz pendant was found in Circle 3 at Carrowmore. In a few cases larger pendants which look more like ritual axe heads have been found, and they may indeed be worn out axe heads ground down to a wearable size.

The outstanding example of a small carved stone is the Knowth Mace-head which was found buried beside the basin in the right recess of the East chamber. This beautiful artifact is made from extremely hard flint, believed to come from Orkney, and is engraved with swirls and spirals which rival the Newgrange Entrance Stone in their excellence.

Antler pins

Carved pins made from bone or the antler of red deer, often with mushroom-shaped heads are one of the most common finds in Irish passage-graves. They are found in virtually every monument ever opened seem to have been included on the cremation pyres as they are usually found cracked and scorched. They are sometimes engraved with a particularly fine engraved example was found in Fourknocks.

The antler pins from two chambers in Carrowmore were used to date the complex in a research project, Unpicking the Chronology of Carrowmore in 2013. The range of dates spanned 3,750 BC to 3,000 BC and are the oldest remains of red deer currently known in Ireland. Red deer were extinct in mesolithic Ireland, and were imported by the first farmers.