Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Megalithic tomb - passage tomb
Knocknarea South, County Sligo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Knocknarea South
- County
- Sligo
- Country
- Ireland
- Latest-edition OS map
- Carn
- Coordinates
- 54.25994, -8.57454
- SMR number
- SL014-076001-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Located on the summit of Knocknarae Mountain, which is flanked to N by Sligo Bay and to SW by Ballysadare Bay. It is 85m N of the massive cairn/passage tomb (SL014-076003-), known as Maeve’s Cairn.
Indicated as ‘Carn’ on the OS 6-inch map.
A circular cairn (diam. 10-12m; H 1m) encloses a cruciform tomb built of orthostats or upright slabs. The tomb consists of a passage, with entrance at SE, which leads to a tripartite chamber. The chamber and the passage are greatly ruined and roofless; only nine orthostats of limestone and gneiss remain in situ. The limestone cairn is low, reaching only to the top of the orthostats; it has been suggested that it may never have covered the top of the chamber (Bergh 1995, 237). The cairn is encircled at a distance of c. 5m by a concentric bank (diam. 30m; Wth 4.5m; H 0.6m) of limestone. The tomb appears to have been one of several monuments on Knocknarae which were disturbed/’investigated’ in the early 1800’s by Richard Chamber Walker, a local landowner and antiquarian; Wood-Martin (1895, 660 ) recorded that burnt human and animal bones and small round unperforated beads [possibly stone] were found. (Bergh 1995, 87-8; 236-7, site 1). This is a National Monument (No. 153) in state ownership.
Attached images:
SL014-076001-_01.JPG Viewed from W
SL014-076001-_02.JPG Ruined chamber, viewed from S
SL014-076001-_03.JPG Ruined chamber, viewed from E
Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy
Date of upload: 6 April 2020
References
Wood-Martin, W. G. 1895 Pagan Ireland; an archaeological sketch: A handbook of Irish pre-Christain antiquities. London and New York, Longmans, Green and Co.
Bergh, S. 1995 Landscape of the monuments. Stockholm. Bureau for Archaeological Excavation.
Nearby in the register
- Enclosureunder 1 mi
- Megalithic tomb - passage tombunder 1 mi
- Hut siteunder 1 mi
- Moundunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.