Queen Maeve's cairn

The great cairn of Knocknarea is a huge neolithic monument probably built some time before 3,200 BC. It is situated close to the highest part of the flat top of Knocknarea, 327 meters above the surrounding sea. The enormous mound is about 60 meters in diameter and is estimated to contain some 27,000 tons of stone.

Queen Maeve is Ireland's most imposing neolithic monument built in a stunning and highly visible location, the focus of the other monuments scattered across the Sligo neolithic landscape.

There is a wide panoramic view for 40-60 km in all directions: the mountain and cairn are foresights when viewed from sites such as Shreeloga Hill to the west, near the Ceide Fields. An observer on the cairn on Shreeloga could watch the equinox sun rising over Knocknarea to the east. The same applies to Shee Lugh, the cairn on the summit of Moytura where the summer solstice sun sets behind Knocknarea.

Summer solstice sunset: viewed from the cairn called Shee Lugh on Moytura. The sun is setting over Knocknarea.

The Queen Maeve's cairn is probably one of the best preserved monuments of its kind remaining in Ireland, and gives a fair idea of the original shape and form of this type of monument - a truncated cone with a flat platform.

The top is slightly dished, as is the flat top of nearby Carns Hill West.

The stone used to build the cairn was quarried nearby: a massive hollow remains about 300 meters from the monument. The cairn may have been covered with chunks of white quartz crystal. The source for quartz is found in the Ox Mountains just a few km to the south, around Croughan cairn.

The quarry in the summit of Knocknarea, where the neolithic builders excavated the chunks of limestone used to build the massive cairn.

Swedish archaeologist Dr. Stefan Bergh has surveyed all the monuments in Coolrea peninsula and published his research in the 1995 book, Landscape of the Monuments. Stefan noted that there is a low platform, 6 meters wide and 30 cm high, beneath the cairn. There is a similar and much more obvious ring around the satellite to the north of Queen Maeve's cairn. Stefan discovered other sub-cairn platforms at Carns Hill, Listoghil and Knocknashee.

He also noted a set circular settings around the base of the cairn, which are similar to settings found at Newgrange, Knowth and Cairn T. However, the settings at Loughcrew and the Boyne Valley are outside the entrances while at Knocknarea they area spread out around the cairn.

Aside from Queen Maeve's cairn, there are six more neolithic monuments, five on the summit, while an overgrown boulder circle is on the edge of the lower ledge to the east. All are quite ruined, and several were explored by Rodger Walker, the landlord from Rathcarrick House, in the 1830s. There are also the foundations of some 30 neolithic houses and 1.2 km of stone walls and banks on the south side of the summit.