Carrowmore 3.92

Carrowmore, County Sligo is one of the four major passage tomb complexes in Ireland. It is located at the geographical centre of the Cúil Irra peninsula in County Sligo and 3 km west of Sligo town.This is one of the largest complexes of megalithic tombs in Ireland and is also among the oldest used passage tombs, the earliest depositions approximately 3700 BC.LocationPlaced on a small plateau at an altitude of between 36.5 and 59 meters above sea level Carrowmore is the focal point of a prehistoric ritual landscape which is dominated by the mountain of Knocknarea to the west with the great cairn of Miosgán Médhbh on top. To the east, in Carns townland, two large cairns overlook Lough Gill, and along the eastern boundary of the peninsula the Ballygawley Mountains have four passage tombs at their peaks.Description30 monuments survive in Carrowmore today. There may have been more monuments in the complex originally, but some fell victim to quarrying and field clearance during the 18th, 19th and early 20th century. The complex is about one kilometre north-south and 600 meters east-west. Most of the sites are "satellite tombs" which surround the largest monument, placed on the high point of the plateau, the cairn (now restored) called Listoghil.Because of the clustering of the monuments, certain morphological features presented by the tombs, and the assemblage of material found within some of the monuments Carrowmore – like Newgrange, Loughcrew and Carrowkeel – is classified by archaeologists as being part of the Irish Passage Tomb Tradition. However, in some respects the Carrowmore sites are atypical passage tombs. For example, none of the tombs have lintel-covered, tunnel-like, passages that are a feature of most Irish passage tombs, and only one site (Tomb 51, Listoghil) possesses a cairn.