One of ‘Ireland’s ‘Big 4’ passage tomb cemeteries

Carrowkeel sits on a desolate hilltop 1000 feet above sea level and dates back to c.3400BC. It is just one of 14 cairns forming part of the Carrowkeel Neolithic Passage Tomb Cemetery and is one of the ‘Big 4’ passage tomb cemeteries in Ireland that include Brú na Bóinne, Lough Crew, and Carrowmore. Carrowkeel was controversially excavated in 1911 by R.A.S. Macalister and Robert Lloyd Praeger who left some of the tombs in ruins. Their findings included an array of animal bones, cremated human remains, human bones, tools, and pottery from both the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Praeger gives an eerie account of his first impressions of entering the tomb in his famous 1937 book ‘The Way That I Went. Some of the interesting features found included box-like cists, double curbing, classic cruciform-shaped chambers, and dry-stone corbelled roofs. Many of the tombs are orientated towards the great cairn of Queen Maeve on the top of Knocknarea just south of Sligo Town.