Cycling for Bubaque 2019-Ireland: Visit to Carrowmore Megalithic Site

The number of stone circles and dolmens that is grouped here is impressive, but originally there were other tombs. However, these were looted and destroyed over the years, either the stones of the cairns (cairns) simply reused to build the typical Irish meadow walls.

The curious thing about this place is that all the graves are in an oval around a large one, central dolmen stand over which a tall cairn was laid. That dolmen (Listoghil) was accessible through a narrow passageway, hence the term 'gang grave'. The passage is oriented east-southeast, to where on Halloween (October 31) and around February 10, the sun rises behind the hills and shines straight into the passage up to the tomb. This has a front wall stone with a pointed top, which then put on the back wall a sundial forms. The cover plate of the dolmen had to be in a angle of 6° upwards lie to allow the sun's rays to reach behind. To create that right angle, there were smaller boulders between the cover plate and the sidewalls crammed. Without any cranes or forklifts involved, that is....

The graves are supposed to be the transition from the land of the living to that of the dead. The megaliths themselves, which because of their durability are a eternity value attributed were probably the binder with previous generations.
Carrowmore is just in the centre of the peninsula and, apart from the ocean side, is surrounded by hilltops. On each of those hilltops there are also tall cairns, of which those of mount Knocknarea in the west is visible to the naked eye. That cairn would be the grave its by Maeve, a hell-raising queen from Irish legends, but there are still graves in Ireland that claim Maeve is buried there. The cairn has not yet been examined for its contents, and according to the local guide, this is for the best, because if it turned out that Maeve is not buried there, it would not help local tourism.
The more of these megalithic, Celtic and early Christian ruins I visit, the more I begin to reflect on the evolution of our planet, the interdependence of all phenomena, including ourselves, and the profound role humanity has played in it over the last millennia - a pinprick on the timeline of the universe. That evolution is still very much felt and visible in the Irish landscape.