Loughcrew (Irish: Loch Craobh ) is near Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland.(Sometimes written Lough Crew ). Loughcrew is an area of great historical importance in Ireland. It is the place förmegalitiska burial ground dating back to about 3500 and 3300 BC, is located near the top of the Sliabh na Caillí and surrounding mountains and valleys. Passage graves on the site is in line with Equinoxsoluppgången.
The Loughcrew Passage Tombs
Lough Crew Passage Tomb is one of the four main passage graves in Ireland (the other is Brú na Bóinne, Carrowkeel and Carrowmore). They are believed to be from about 3300 F Kr.Platserna consists of cross-chamber covered in most cases of a hill. A unique style of megalithic petroglyphs seen there, including lozenge shapes, leaf shapes, such as circles, a portion surrounded by radiating lines. [1]
The place is spread over three hills, Carnbane East, Carnbane West, and Patrick Town. The Irish name for the area is Sliabh na Caillí , which means “mountain of hag”. Legend says that the monument was created when a giant hag, step over the country, dropped its load of large rocks from her apron.The orthostats and structural monuments stones tend to be from local green gritstone, that was soft enough to cut, but also is vulnerable to vandalism.
In 1980 discovered the Irish-American researcher Martin Brennan to Cairn T in Carnbane East directed to receive the rays of the rising sun in the spring and autumn equinox -. The light shining down the passage and illuminate the art of reverse least [2] [3] Brennan also discovered adaptations Cairn L (53 ° 44’36 “N 7 ° 08’03” W), Knowth and Dowth in the Boyne Valley. Cairn T alignment similar to the well-known lighting for passage grave at Bru na Bóinne (Newgrange) which is adapted to catch the rays of the winter solstice sunrise.
There are about twenty tombs in Loughcrew complex besides Cairn Cairn L and T, along with additional archaeological sites.
Modern history
In later centuries Loughcrew became the seat of a branch of the Norman-Irish Plunkett family, whose most famous member was martyred St. Oliver Plunkett. The family church stands in the grounds of Loughcrew Gardens.With its rugged isolation, Sliabh na Caillí became a critical meeting place throughout the criminal laws of the Catholics. Even if the forest is gone now an excellent example of a Mass rock can still be seen on the top of the Sliabh na Caillí today. The Plunketts were involved in running the Irish Confederation of the 1640s and was displaced in the Cromwellian Settlement of 1652. Their property at Loughcrew awarded by Sir William Petty to Naper Family c. In 1655. The Napers descended from Sir Robert Napier was Chief Baron Finance Ireland in 1593. [4]
The Napers built an extensive property of some 180,000 acres (730 km²) in north Meath in the subsequent centuries that reflected that developed by their neighbors Cromwellians, Taylors of Headfort. After a third and devastating fire in 1964, the three Naper sons went to court and asked that the state makes it possible for the family trust to be broken up and the yard is shared between the three sons. Then, the house and gardens have been restored by Charles and Emily Naper, which open gardens and run an annual opera festival. [5]
See also
- archaeoastronomy
- Cailleach
- List of archaeoastronomical seats per country
- List of megalithic monuments in Ireland
- Newgrange
References
- Jump up ^ photos of megalithic art in Cairn T from knowth.com
- Jump up ^ documented in photographs and videos taken on the spot for six consecutive years
- Jump up ^ Brennan, Martin, Stars and Stones: Ancient Art and Astronomy Ireland – Thames and Hudson (1983); later re-published asThe Stones of Time (1996).
- Jump up ^ Bunbury, Turtle (2003, 2006) “Loughcrew House, Co. Meath – Gilded Magnificence
- Jump up ^ Lyttelton, Celia (May 2009), “Interiors: aria state,”Telegraph, UK.