Sundials in Ireland Prehistoric Sun Alignments and Dials
In
addition to the many prehistoric passage tombs found all over ireland, there
are four BIG cemeteries with multiple cairns which are located at Brú na
Bóinne and Loughcrew in Co.Meath, Carrowkeel and Carrowmore in Co.Sligo.
Three of them have solstice or equinox aligned passage tombs.
Brú na Bóinne, Gaelige for 'Palace of the Boyne',
is the ancient name for an area in County Meath which sits in a horse shoe bend
of the river Boyne near the east coast of Ireland. It is 50kms north of Dublin
and 6kms inland from Drogheda. Surrounded on three sides by water, this
prehistoric cemetery contains the three great megalithic passage graves of
Newgrange, Dowth and Knowth and 35 smaller mounds. The tombs were built during
the Neolithic Stone Age over 5000 years ago, making them older than Stonehenge
in England and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Brú na
Bóinne is one of the largest and most important prehistoric
megalithic sites in Europe and was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO
in 1999.
Loughcrew, Sliaḃ na Caillíġe ,
Gaelige for ‘Hill of the Old Woman’, is an extensive collection of
more than 30 chambered megalithic passage tombs atop a range of hills on the
western border of county Meath. Most of the cairns are located on two hills,
Carnbane East and Carnbane West.
Carrowkeel, An
Ċeaṫrú Ċaol , Gaelige for 'the Narrow Quarter', is a
Neolithic passage tomb cemetery in the south of County Sligo, near Boyle,
County Roscommon. There are fourteen passage tombs in Carrowkeel and Cairn G
incorporates a structure known as a roofbox, which admits a beam of light from
the sun at sunset at the summer solstice and illuminates the interior of the
tomb. The only other example of a roofbox currently known in Ireland is at
Newgrange.
If you
know the location of a sundial in Ireland (NOT a mass produced
DIY Store garden ornament) please email it to me
(Click here to email
M.J.Harley) - a
member of British Sundial Society 
