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| A
megalithic clock? This carving inside Cairn T sits in line with
the beam of sun which penetrates through the passage into the
rear of the chamber. |
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| The
heavy fog blowing into the chamber created an eerie light for
photography. The heavily-decorated passage stone is lit remotely
by a torch. |
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| There
is so much about these ancient stone sites that seems to concern
time that it is tempting to think of carvings like the one above
as representing the face of a clock. |
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| I
call this carving, on a stone in the northern recess of Cairn
T, a megalithic centipede. but it is likely to be some kind
of counting system. |
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| I've
called this one "Megalithic Doodlings" but this is
unfair because I don't believe any of their carvings did not
have some meaning or purpose. |
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| The
positioning of concentric half-circles on chamberstones is not
unique to Cairn T, but their meaning eludes us. Perhaps they
formed part of an ancient counting system. |
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| "Cup
and ring marks" as they are commonly known, can be found
on stones scattered all over the Irish landscape. These markings
are on a chamberstone of Cairn V, Loughcrew. |
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| An
illuminated chamberstone in the passage of Cairn T on the Spring
Equinox. Unfortunately, the sun did not shine for us in 2005! |
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| Misty
mountain . . . the fog enveloping Carnbane East was so thick
we could hardly see 20 yards in front of us. |
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| Richard
Moore relates some old myths to Michael Ryan on the summit of
Carnbane East. |
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SPRING
EQUINOX 2005
On
a clear Spring Equinox morning, the sunrise penetrates into
the rear of the chamber of Cairn T at Loughcrew, illuminating
symbols on a heavily decorated stone. Seeing this event requires
to be at the summit of Carnbane East at before 6.30am. Unfortunately,
for the three days around the Spring Equinox 2005, the event
was not seen because of inclement weather. However, there
are always interesting people around and the spirits were
still good when the above photos were taken on Sunday, March
20th. Michael Fox of Knowth.com
was lucky to catch the event on Wednesday, March 23rd, and
has a nice sequence of photos on his website – click
here to see them.
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Cairn T, Loughcrew at the Spring Equinox 2005