Seefin Passage Tomb is an empty

passage grave A passage grave or passage tomb consists of one or more burial chambers covered in earth or with stone, and having a narrow access passage made of large stones. These structures usually date from the Neolithic Age, and are found largely in Wester ...

and National Monument located atop Seefin Hill, County Wicklow,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Location

Seefin Passage Tomb is located atop Seefin in the

Wicklow Mountains The Wicklow Mountains (, archaic: ''Cualu'') form the largest continuous upland area in the Republic of Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into the counties of Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. ...

, just south of Kilbride Army Camp. Nearby

Seefingan Seefingan often spelt Seafingan ( meaning ''Fingan's Seat'') is a mountain that straddles two county boundaries from its summit in County Wicklow, Wicklow eastwards down into South Dublin, in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. There are extensive vi ...

and Seahan mountains also have cairns atop them.

History

The tomb was built circa 3300 BC, during Ireland's Neolithic. It was excavated by R. A. Stewart Macalister in 1931, but no artefacts or human remains were found, suggesting that no-one was ever buried there, or that the remains were later removed.

Description

The tomb is a stone cairn, in diameter and high. There are large kerb stones around the base of the tomb and the tomb has a passageway long which opens into a chamber with five compartments. There are some carved decorations in

lozenge Lozenge or losange may refer to: * Lozenge (shape), a type of rhombus *Throat lozenge, a tablet intended to be dissolved slowly in the mouth to suppress throat ailments *Lozenge (heraldry), a diamond-shaped object that can be placed on the field of ...

shape, carved lines and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

Photo gallery

File:Early Christian cross Seefin.jpg, Carved cross inside Seefin tomb File:Seefin entrance-HDR.jpg, Entrance doorway File:Seefin chamber.jpg, View from chamber looking outward File:Seefin_From_above_Bullseye_1.png, View from above

References

{{Reflist National Monuments in County Wicklow Archaeological sites in County Wicklow Tombs in the Republic of Ireland