Neolithic Sites in Ireland

I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Ireland over my Christmas holiday two years ago with a friend of mine, and we went to go see some different types of paleo/neolithic sites. A couple of the places included the Hill of Tara, Pollnabrón, and Newgrange. Here are some pictures from each place with a little tidbit of information for each one!!!

Pollnabrón is a megalithic portal tomb in the Burren of County Clare, Ireland, dating back from the Neolithic or New Stone Age period, in the fourth millennium BC. This particular tomb is also considered the best preserved example in the whole country.

Newgrange is one of my favorite places because it has some incredible artwork carved and painted in the stone. The passage and chamber of Newgrange is illuminated by the winter solstice sunrise. A shaft of sunlight shines through the roof box that is over the entrance and penetrates the passage to light up the chamber. This dramatic event lasts a whopping total of 17 minutes at dawn on the winter solstice and for a few mornings before and after the solstice. When I toured inside the chamber they showed an example of this light strip using a flashlight. The light went all the way to the back of the chamber but only shown a very thin strip. All around this small line of light was still pitch black - I couldn't even see the person next to me and we were packed in the room almost touching on all sides. It's so amazing how these stone age people figured out how to measure this building and align it just right so that the light would shine directly into the box on the ceiling. I never pictured cavemen type people to be very bright but these people were obviously very smart! Pictures were unfortunately not allowed inside the chamber because with the age of the building, the light could damage the artwork inside. But I have some pictures here of the outside that have just a few examples of what the artwork inside was like!!

The major artwork at this location were lots of triangles and swirly patterns!


And then finally the Hill of Tara was interesting. This one is actually from the Iron Age but it's still similar - and very cool. Right now it's basically just a hill with a few stones on it because of damage due to weather and time and stupid people... and from looking at it generally it isn't very impressive. But it used to be the throne of the high King of Ireland! And there are different opinions on whether it was actually the seat the king would have sat on or if it was more of a sacral place associated with kingship rituals.

I hope you guys enjoy these pictures! It's really awesome for me to be studying this stuff since I got to see it first hand, but now I am starting to see and appreciate the timeline more and understand how these people accomplished all of these things! It's incredible.. They had to be the most innovative people!