Fourknocks

Nearest town:
Garristown (5km SW)
OS reference:
O109621
OS sheet:
43
Latitude:
53° 35' 49.2 N
Longitude:
6° 19' 29.02 W

Sites within Fourknocks

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Images

Image of Fourknocks (Passage Grave) by ryaner

To the left of the passage as you enter is this finely picked piece, very reminiscent of the art at Knowth.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner May 13, 2023
Image of Fourknocks (Passage Grave) by ryaner

The passage lintel, now placed on the wall to the right as you enter. It’s a fascinating piece with its almost sheer, flattened plane.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner May 13, 2023
Image of Fourknocks (Passage Grave) by ryaner

I find the concrete dome forgivable given what it protects – after a while your eyes adjust from the exterior brightness to the darkened interior and you realise that the dome has slots to allow some natural light shine on each chamber.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner May 13, 2023
Image of Fourknocks (Passage Grave) by GLADMAN

One site where the protective concrete dome actually accentuates the atmosphere. And how!

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 20, 2016
Image of Fourknocks (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

Looking out the passage from the chamber, the stone on the right bears what some have claimed to be a stylised face, above the end of the passage is the amazingly preserved zig-zags on a lozenge shaped stone which is thought to have originally spanned the end of the passage.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2008
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Sep 30, 2008
Image of Fourknocks (Passage Grave) by bawn79

Thought by some to be the anthromorphic face of a person

Image credit: Bawn79
bawn79
bawn79 Aug 29, 2006
Image of Fourknocks (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

I’ve been looking forward to getting back here since I got the really wide lens, my 28mm could barely fit in the three side chambers but now you can see almost the full main chamber too (note the carvings on the free-standing stone to the right).

Image credit: Ken Williams - [email protected]
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Oct 9, 2005
Image of Fourknocks (Passage Grave) by greywether

This stone is above right as you enter the chamber but its original position was probably as a lintel over the passage.

greywether
greywether Dec 22, 2003

Articles

Fourknocks

bawn79
bawn79 Aug 29, 2006

I went up here not knowing why I wanted to go to fourknocks. As luck would have it the Skerries Historical society had a woman doing a talk on the Landscape of the FourKnocks Valley. She had done her dissertation on Fourknocks so it was great interest I followed their tour. She (Brid) talked about fourknocks one and the barrow cemetery and their relationship with the three henges in the area. She took us to see two of them.
I also got to see the amazing art inside fourknocks and she also reckons that fourknocks is aligned to the sunrise on the 21st Dec but all it does is light up the chamber. There were about 20 people in the chamber so it was difficult to get photos but Ill definitely head back for another look and get the key myself.
Also she noted that you should never put chalk on stone carvings that it corodes them. Dont know how true this is but its something to note for photographers.

She even had a hand-out and it has a great quote about its discovery.
“And it all started whe a lady visitor to Newgrange remarked – ‘But there are mounds like this on my uncle’s farm near The Naul’” (Excerpt from the National Muesum top files on Fourknocks)

Fourknocks

C
C33 Feb 5, 2002

This is a very odd site. When I was last here (winter 2000) it was the most completely off the beaten track, non-touristy place you could find, and yet the central chamber of the passage tomb is larger than Newgrange! The rock art too is of a standard that could hold its own against the best Brugh na Boinne could offer (especially the weirdly anthropomorphic ‘hag stone’, is-it-or-isn’t-it a portrait of the grinning winter death goddess?). It’s up to your imagination really! The main downside is that the caved in roof has been repaired in ‘concrete pillbox bunker style’ instead of trying to replace the original corbelling. The effect of so much brutally modern building material in such an ancient place makes you wonder if it couldn’t have been done with a bit more sensitivity.

Things might have changed since last time, but you definitely needed a torch as there is no lighting inside. Also as it is usually locked you have to get the key from a local guy called Mr White (if you follow the instructions to his house on the notice you drive down this little side road, it seems to go on for miles and you think you must have gone past his house, but don’t give up! His house has a big plaque with ‘White’ set into the garden wall. I think it’s a tenner deposit for the key.) Anyway, if you like the idea of having an entire neolithic passage tomb to yourself, this is the place, especially in the evenings or out of season.

Miscellaneous

Fourknocks
Passage Grave
faerygirl
faerygirl Jul 12, 2010

A study by Murphy and Moore (The Cygnus Enigma using the Sky-globe to observed ancient star alignments) saw that in 3000BC, the ” window” created by the mounds entrace chamber would have aligned to the star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus;

“On the night of the midwinter solstice, Deneb marks the location of the sun from the time the sun sets until the time the sun rises plus or minus the time it takes for Deneb to come out into the darkening sky. So observers at either mound (Fourknocks or Newgrange) could track the position of the sun below the horizon using Deneb as their guide”

Topics

Another Quarry Threat 4
FourWinds
FourWinds
Jun 2004

Sites within 20km of Fourknocks

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