'Carrowkeel - Cairn M' : Passage Tomb
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Visit Notes
Saturday, 19th June 2010
This is one of the two passage tombs at Carrowkeel that I have not visited yet. Today was the perfect chance to correct that. While the small crowds gathered at Carrowkeel - Cairn G (County Sligo) I wondered off to find this diminutive tomb. It's quite a long walk back from the main tombs and there has to be a reason for its separation. The sun was setting fast while I was here, so things were hard to assess. However, I could see that from here the cairn on Kesh is 'kidnapped' so that it appears to be on the top of a nearer hilltop.
Then, as the sun set, I was amazed at what I saw. The small stumpy, but wide passage does not align to any particularly special compass point, but it does appear to point at Kesh. The special thing I witnessed is that, because the passage is so short and wide, the setting solstice sun is allowed to strike the rear stone of the southern chamber inside the tomb.
It is impossible to know how real this effect is, because the tomb is rather ruined. It does look convincing though.
The tomb may be cruciform in plan, but it may also be T-shaped. The maximum dimension of the structure is just 4m and the cairn around it appears to have been proportionally small, too.
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This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |
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