View source for Loughcrew

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Use Irish English|date=November 2019}}
[[File:Cairns S(?) and T, Loughcrew.jpg|thumb|250px|Cairn S and Cairn T]]
[[File:1-loughcrew3.jpg|thumb|250px|View from the top of one of the tombs]]
'''Loughcrew''' or '''Lough Crew''' ({{Irish place name|Loch Craobh|lake of the tree}}) is an area of historical importance near Oldcastle, County Meath, Republic of Ireland. It is home to a group of ancient tombs from the 4th millennium BCE, some decorated with rare [[megalithic art]], which sit on top of a range of hills. The hills and tombs are together known as '''[[Slieve na Calliagh]]''' (''Sliabh na Caillí'')<ref>[https://www.logainm.ie/en/106123 Slieve na Calliagh/Sliabh na Caillí]. [[Placenames Database of Ireland]].</ref> and are the highest point in Meath. It is one of the four main [[passage tomb]] cemeteries in Ireland and is a protected National Monument.

==The tombs==
[[File:Entrance passage with cup marks, Loughcrew cairn T.jpg|thumb|The inner passage of Cairn T]]
There are remains of more than twenty ancient tombs at Loughcrew. It is one of the four main [[passage tomb]] cemeteries in Ireland along with Brú na Bóinne, Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery and Carrowmore. The [[megalith]]ic monuments are spread across four hilltops: Carnbane East, Carnbane West, Carrickbrack and Patrickstown Hill. These hills and the tombs themselves are together known as [[Slieve na Calliagh]] or ''Sliabh na Caillí'', meaning "mountain of the [[Cailleach]]", the divine [[hag]] of [[Irish mythology]]. Legend has it that the monuments were created when a giant hag, striding across the land, dropped her cargo of large stones from her apron.

No comprehensive dating program has been conducted there, but the monuments are estimated to date from about 3300 BC. The monuments consist of cruciform chambers, all of which would have been covered by mounds. A unique style of [[petroglyphs]] is found there, including lozenge shapes, leaf shapes, as well as circles, some surrounded by radiating lines.<ref name=knowth1>[http://www.knowth.com/loughcrew.htm photos of megalithic art in Cairn T] from knowth.com</ref> The orthostats and structural stones of the monuments tend to be from local green gritstone, which was soft enough to carve.

In 1980 Irish-American researcher Martin Brennan discovered that Cairn T in Carnbane East is directed to receive the beams of the rising sun on the spring and autumnal [[equinox]] - the light shining down the passage and illuminating the art on the backstone.<ref name=knowth2>Documented in [http://www.knowth.com/loughcrew-equinox.htm photos and videos taken on site for six years in a row]</ref><ref name=Brennan1>Brennan, Martin, ''The Stars and the Stones: Ancient Art and Astronomy in Ireland'' - Thames and Hudson (1983); later re-published as ''The Stones of Time'' (1996).</ref> Brennan also discovered alignments in Cairn L ({{coord|53.743299|-7.134040|format=dms|type:landmark|display=inline}}), Knowth, and Dowth in the Boyne Valley. The Cairn T alignment is similar to the well-known illumination at the passage tomb at Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange), which is aligned to catch the rays of the [[winter solstice]] sunrise.

Irish folklore holds that it is bad luck to damage or disrespect such tombs and that doing so could bring a curse.<ref>Sarah Champion & Gabriel Cooney. "Chapter 13: Naming the Places, Naming the Stones". ''Archaeology and Folklore''. Routledge, 2005. p.193</ref><ref>Doherty, Gillian. ''The Irish Ordnance Survey: History, Culture and Memory''. Four Courts Press, 2004. p.89</ref> However, some of the Loughcrew tombs have been vandalised with graffiti, and security patrols have been put in place.<ref>[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/security-patrols-put-in-place-after-vandalism-at-neolithic-site-1.4552166 "Security patrols put in place after vandalism at Neolithic site"]. ''The Irish Times'', 30 April 2021.</ref>

==Modern history==
In more recent centuries Loughcrew became the seat of a branch of the Norman-Irish Plunkett family. The Plunketts were involved in running the Irish Confederacy of the 1640s and were dispossessed in the Cromwellian Settlement of 1652. Their estate at Loughcrew was assigned by Sir William Petty to the Napier Family  c.1655. The Napiers are descended from Sir Robert Napier who was Chief Baron of the Exchequer of Ireland in 1593.<ref name=bunbury>Bunbury, Turtle (2003, 2006)
[http://www.turtlebunbury.com/published/published_interiors/ireland/pub_int_loughc.htm "Loughcrew House, Co. Meath - Gilded Magnificence"]</ref>

The Napiers built an extensive estate of some 180,000 acres (730&nbsp;km²) in north Meath in the subsequent centuries which mirrored that developed by their neighbouring Cromwellians, the Taylors of Headfort. Following a third and devastating fire, in 1964, the three Napier sons went to court and requested that the state allow the family trust to be broken up and the estate divided between the three sons. Subsequently, the house and gardens have been restored by Charles and Emily Napier, who open the gardens and run an annual opera festival.<ref name=Lyttleton>Lyttelton, 
Celia (May 2009) "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100512041237/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/interiorsandshopping/5285921/Interiors-aria-condition.html Interiors: aria condition]," ''Telegraph, UK.''</ref>

==Maps==

==See also==
* [[Archaeoastronomy]]
* [[List of archaeoastronomical sites by country]]
* [[List of megalithic monuments in Ireland]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline|Loughcrew}}
* [https://voicesfromthedawn.com/loughcrew/ Loughcrew at Voices from the Dawn]
* [http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/loughcrew/index.html Art and astronomy at Loughcrew]
* [http://www.knowth.com/loughcrew.htm Loughcrew Information and Images]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170314065048/http://loughcrew.com/cairns/ Details of how to obtain access to the interior of Cairn T]
* [http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/loughcrew/ From http://www.mythicalireland.com]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060926131441/http://www.blather.net/shitegeist/2005/09/a_visit_to_loug.htm A Visit to Loughcrew Megalithic Complex]
* [http://www.dailymotion.com/user/geobiologie/video/x9qz8j_irlande-geobiologie-a-loughcrew-la_travel Loughcrew on video]
* [http://www.loughcrewmegalithiccentre.com/ Loughcrew Megalithic Centre]
* [http://loughcrew.com/ Loughcrew Estate]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170316140830/http://loughcrew.com/loughcrew-adventure-course/ Loughcrew Adventure Centre]

{{Coord|53.744672|-7.112483|format=dms|region:IE_type:landmark|display=title}}

[[Category:Archaeological sites in County Meath]]
[[Category:Mountains and hills of County Meath]]
[[Category:National Monuments in County Meath]]
[[Category:4th-millennium BC architecture]]
[[Category:Work in progress]]