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Loughcrew is just inside the Meath border
at Oldcastle and stretches over four hilltops, it is also known as
Sliabh na Caillighe
meaning hill of the Witch.
At Loughcrew there are the remains of over
thirty passage tombs dating back to around 3000 B.C in the Neolithic
stone age or new stone age, this would have been the time of Irelands
first Farming societies.
Of the thirty or so tombs at
Loughcrew, two stand out and are almost intact they are pictured
below Cairn T and Cairn L. Each Cairn or tomb has been assigned a Letter to identify
it. Inside the tombs and pictured below is some of the highly decorated
stones. The most prominent design to be found throughout the whole
site are the Spirals which
are similar to those found at
Newgrange.
Apart from the two tombs which are in
good condition the rest are sadly in poor condition as time has took
its toll on them but some are not as bad as others, some can still
be entered and the Burial chambers
can plainly be seen and in some cases the fine carvings can be seen,
I have included some pictures below of the detailed stones and two
examples of tombs that have fallen in or been eroded below. All of
the tombs are scattered over the four hills at Loughcrew but are mostly
concentrated on Carnbane East and Carnbane West, a detailed information
board is located at the car park there but it would take a full day
to cover the two hills. |
