Tuesday, 14 December 2021

We Went Up a Hill

Yesterday the sun came out for a bit and so we went to look at one of the Loughcrew passage tombs, built around 3000 BC. We climbed to the top of Carnbane East, where this one stands. Beneath the mound of stones, there is a cross-shaped chamber. At dawn each year on 21st March and 21st September the sun's rays fall through the cairn's entrance, illuminating puzzling carvings on the stones in the wall opposite the entrance. 

The whole landscape around Carnbane East is very beautiful and it is not difficult to imagine a time when people roamed these hills, spending most of their energy simply keeping warm, dry and fed, but also somehow managing to create structures like this one. 

The weather and wild cloud added to the sense of wonder I felt:















 

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