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This is a nice little story that I got from the Dúchas Visitors' Guide to The Loughcrew Cairns:-
The four hills are shown on Ordnance Survey maps as Sliabh Na Caillí or the Hills of the Witch. Legend has it that the Hag or Witch (sometimes known as An Cailleach Bhéarra) jumped from one hill to the next, dropping stones from her apron to form the cairns. After she had jumped onto three hills, she still had to get to another and make a fourth group of cairns in order to attain great power. As she attempted to get to the last hill, she fell and was killed. The story says she was buried where she fell, on the slopes of Patrickstown Hill.
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The thing that struck me most at this site was some of the work that had been put into shaping a few of the stones. They have been worked considerably and without the help of masonary equipment. Some of the cup marks on one of the stones are more than an inch deep and a good inch and a half long.
I know this is the case at many sites but this place really got me thinking. When you get up close and see how much effort was put into the fine detail of a site like this you can't help but get an over powering sense of its importance. It's a feeling you would expect to get at somewhere like Avebury but these smaller sites hold huge importance as well.
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I was completely blown away by the Loughcrew complex. Driving through, on our way to pick up the key for Cairn T, we were completely surrounded by an amazing landscape. It was spring so the hills were rich with greenery and, every so often, there was a mass of vivid yellow where the gorse was starting to flower.
There seemed to be a treat around every corner. We had Fourwinds as our guide so we were lucky enough to have all the major (and some minor) features pointed out even before we got out of the car. The majority of the features are passage tombs, some of which are still covered but most of which are open and weathering away. There are a few standing stones and we saw the remains of a stone circle from half way up Carnbane East.
As they say in the guidebooks, the Loughcrew complex is a huge graveyard and, as such, it is quite an emotional place. I got a bit teary at the top of Carnbane East partly because of the sheer beauty of my surroundings but also because I could sense the power and ritual of the place. It was obviously a very important part of a Neolithic community and other communities in years to come.
Rock art is in abundance in the area and is a mystery to archaeologists. There are many theories about what it could all mean but I can't even begin to think what significance it had. Whatever it meant, it is nice just to enjoy it and revel in the fact that you are witnessing something that was created 5000 years ago!
Well worth a visit and you could easily spend a day there especially if you're lucky enough to get a sunny day like we did.
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