gjrk wrote:
Hey George
I had a look last night and the only reference that I could find was in Anthony Murphy's last book; "Island of the Setting Sun". He reckoned that there was a inter-monument summer solstice alignment from Knowth to Townleyhall (or, as he called it; Site T). Intentional? Maybe, maybe not. But he refers to excavation details in George Eogan's 1986 'Passage Tomb' book - which I don't have. There's a chance (slim, I suppose) that that might have orientation information.
Thanks Gordon , I have read the Setting Sun book and have a lot of notes of mistakes .The claim is that “Knowth would see summer solstice sunrise over Site T “ it wouldn't as the horizon would be Red Mountain and it would take place 18 days earlier than the solstice ,or alternatively the solstice as seen from Knowth would be oriented on a line 200metres north of Townleyhall passage grave. The plan of Townleyhall in the George Eogan book I think might actually be from The Mitchell excavation but like many excavation plans the northing is miles out (The classic O' Kelly plan for Newgrange is about 12 degrees out ) .
The Townleyhall passage is open to the skies and on Google Earth looks to be about 46-50 degrees (the plan is closer to 60 )which looking much better for a possible solstice alignment .
