Slieve na Calliagh () are a range of hills and ancient burial site near Oldcastle,

County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

, Ireland. The summit is , the highest point in the county. On the hilltops are about twenty

passage tomb Passage, The Passage or Le Passage may refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * Passage (2008 film), ''Passage'' (2008 film), a documentary about Arctic explorers * Passage (2009 film), ''Passage'' (2009 film), a short movie about three sisters * ...

s, some decorated with rare

megalithic art Megalithic art refers to art either painted or carved onto megaliths in prehistoric Europe and found on the structural elements, like the kerbstones, orthostats, or capstones of megalithic tombs, but recent investigations have included decorati ...

, which were built in the

4th millennium BC File:4th millennium BC montage.jpg, 400x400px, From top left clockwise: The Temple of Ġgantija, one of the oldest freestanding structures in the world; Warka Vase; Bronocice pot with one of the earliest known depictions of a wheeled vehicle; Kish ...

. Also called the Loughcrew tombs, it is a protected

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

and is one of the main passage tomb cemeteries in Ireland, along with

Brú na Bóinne (, "mansion or palace of the Boyne"), also called the Boyne Valley tombs, is an ancient monument complex and ritual landscape in County Meath, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, located in a bend of the River Boyne. It is one of the world's most im ...

, Carrowkeel and

Carrowmore Carrowmore (, 'the great quarter') is a large group of megalithic monuments on the Coolera Peninsula to the west of Sligo, Ireland. They were built in the 4th millennium BC, during the Neolithic (New Stone Age). There are 30 surviving tombs wi ...

Naming

The hills are named after the

Cailleach In Gaelic ( Irish, Scottish and Manx) myth, the Cailleach (, ) is a divine hag, associated with the creation of the landscape and with the weather, especially storms and winter. The word literally means 'old woman, hag', and is found with t ...

, the divine hag of

Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths indigenous to the island of Ireland. It was originally Oral tradition, passed down orally in the Prehistoric Ireland, prehistoric era. In the History of Ireland (795–1169), early medieval era, myths were ...

. Legend has it that the monuments were created when a giant hag, striding across the land, dropped her cargo of large stones from her apron.

Hills

Slieve na Calliagh includes the hills of Carnbane East, Carnbane West, Carrickbrack, and Patrickstown Hill. File:Loughcrew 5.jpg, Carnbane West File:Carnbane West -1.jpg, Carrickbrack File:Loughcrew 6.jpg, Patrickstown Hill

Tombs

On the hilltops are the remains of more than twenty ancient tombs and

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

s dating back to the

. It is one of the four main

cemeteries in Ireland along with

, Carrowkeel and

. The cemetery itself is also known as Slieve na Calliagh, or the Loughcrew tombs. The monuments were described by the archaeologist E.A. Conwell in 1864 when he presented a paper to the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

. Conwel's surveys and investigations were followed by those of Rotherham in 1895, and George Coffey at the start of the 20th century. Most of the monuments are remains of passage tombs that are estimated to date from around 3,000 BC. Research on human remains found in association with similar Irish monuments suggests that the builders were descendants of people who settled in Ireland from around 4,200 BC. The two main cairns on the site are known as Cairn L and Cairn T, the latter of which is also called the 'Tomb of Ollamh Fodhla' or the 'Hag's Cairn'. More than 30 monuments have been identified and there may once have been between fifty and one hundred mounds in the area. Several of the monuments are covered in rare

. In 1980, Irish-American researcher Martin Brennan discovered that Cairn T is directed to receive the beams of the rising sun on the spring and autumnal

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun appears directly above the equator, rather than to its north or south. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise directly east and set directly west. This occurs twice each year, arou ...

, when the sunbeam shines down the passage and lights up the

on the backstone.Documented i
photos and videos taken on site for six years in a row
/ref>Brennan, Martin, ''The Stars and the Stones: Ancient Art and Astronomy in Ireland'' - Thames and Hudson (1983); later re-published as ''The Stones of Time'' (1996). Above this stone is a decorated ceiling stone which is also lit by the sun during the spring equinox sunrise. The passage tombs likely predate those at Brú na Bóinne and much of their art anticipates similar forms used at those sites. The site is a protected

. In recent years, some of the Loughcrew tombs have been vandalised with graffiti, and security patrols have been put in place. Irish folklore holds that it is bad luck to damage or disrespect such tombs and that doing so could bring a curse.Doherty, Gillian. ''The Irish Ordnance Survey: History, Culture and Memory''. Four Courts Press, 2004. p.89 File:Cairns S(?) and T, Loughcrew.jpg, Cairn S and Cairn T (The Hag's Carn) File:Loughcrew Drone Image.jpg, Overhead view of Cairn S, Cairn T and Cairn U File:1-loughcrew3.jpg, View from the top of Cairn T File:Entrance passage with cup marks, Loughcrew cairn T.jpg, Passage of Cairn T, with cup marks File:Sun wall, Loughcrew.jpg, Megalithic art inside Cairn T

References

External links

Megalithic Cairns at Slieve na Calliagh
- photos and videos from Knowth.com {{Mountains and hills of Leinster Marilyns of Ireland Mountains and hills of County Meath Highest points of Irish counties Archaeological sites in County Meath National monuments in County Meath

Naming

Hills

Tombs

See also

References

External links