The Boyne Valley, Co Meath - Republic of Ireland
The Boyne Valley and its surrounding area form a landscape that is rich in its prehistoric importance.
Nestling on hills at a bend of the Boyne River in Co Meath, five miles from the town of Drogheda and 28 miles north of Dublin, three large tumuli dominate the river's northern bank. Newgrange, Dowth and Knowth, as these mounds are known, form part of a huge prehistoric cemetery complex which includes 25 passage graves, standing stones, earth enclosures and other smaller structures. The cemetery complex dates from around 3,000 BC, making it older than Stonehenge.
These cemeteries are not unique. 40Km west is Lough Crew in Co Sligo. It is a similar cemetery with 25 passage graves and is called in Irish "Sliaba Na Cailliagh" or "Hill of the Witch". At Carrowkeel, also in Co Sligo, there are 14 tombs and Carrowmore has 32, but they are in poor repair. However, none of these have captured the imagination like the Boyne Valley.
The structures in the valley are some of the earliest human constructions known. It is easy to understand why their mysterious antiquity led to local myths of fairy hills of the pagan past. The Church, guessing their pagan origins, tried to break them up or neutralize them with crosses or chapels.
The builders of the tombs were farming people who belonged to a group known as the Beaker people. They ate lots of meat from cows, goats and pigs and they also grew crops. They had a knowledge of sailing and probably traded for stone, quarried from the Mourne Mountains in Co Down. They were settled in one place and were well off for the time, having plenty of food and the time spare to apply to the constrution of enormous tombs like these.
The Delaney family owned the land here until 1961, at which point it was sold to the Irish State.
The Boyne Valley Sites:
Email me at bogwitch@yahoo.co.uk
Newgrange