Listoghil (Irish : Lios an tSeagail) is the large central monument in the Carrowmore group of prehistoric tombs in County Sligo in Ireland. It was numbered as Carrowmore 51 by George Petrie in 1837 and this designation is still used. Although the district of Cuil Irra is steeped in legend, Listoghil has never been satisfactorily connected with the ancient legends in the way that say Newgrange has. It is the only cairn in Carrowmore. Antiquarians in the 19th century made references to another cairn nearby at Leacharail, but the site of this has never been located.
According to Petrie (Letter to Larcom, Aug. 1837), the name may mean 'Ryefort' (it appears as Lios a' tSeagail, seagail meaning rye in Irish, in early maps). However lios in Irish refers generally to a court or enclosed area, so it may be that the name originally referred to the area enclosed by the dolmens, on which Listoghil stands, rather than the cairn itself.
Listoghil stands 59m above sea level at the geographic centre of the Cúil Irra Peninsula, c.3 km from Sligo town. Set close to the highest point in the cluster of monuments, along a low ridge, it acts as the focus of the Carrowmore passage tomb complex. [1] To the west is Knocknarea with Miosgán Médhbh and to the east the two great cairns on Cairns hill.
Listoghil is surrounded - and generally, faced - by a cluster of 'dolmen circles', also classified as passage tombs by archaeologists. These were open and uncovered. Listoghil is larger than its satellites, being about 34m in diameter; the satellites average about 15m. Queen Maeve's cairn, on Knocknarea Mountain, is twice the diameter, and stands at about 10 m high.
Writings by Charles Elcock from the 1880s describe workmen removing the stones for 'road metal'. Only when quarrymen uncovered the burial chamber in the middle of the mound did its destruction end. By the end of the 19th century the tomb had been investigated by antiquarians of the period who recorded finding 'bones of horses', charred wood and a worked flint javelin head. Some materials from this tomb are in the Alnwick Castle collection [2]
In the late 1990s Goran Burenhult, a Swedish archaeologist, partly excavated Listoghil. He dated bone and carbon material, and exposed the still-intact kerb. The monument was subsequently restored by the Office of Public Works. Listoghil now consists of a 4 m tall, 34 m diameter cairn. Access to the central chamber - via a 13 m artificial avenue of gabions - is possible. The chamber at the heart of the mound is a dolmen-like structure, with 6 orthostats. A single limestone slab - tilted at 6.1° - crowns the chamber. A rare example of Irish megalithic art outside of the Boyne valley, consisting of concentric circular carvings, can be seen on the front side of the roof slab (this is visible only in certain lighting conditions). A symbol described by Julian Cope as 'a strangely distorted tryfuss' has been carved on a stone inside.
Bone and carbon material from Listoghil was carbon dated to approximately 3500 BC. [3] The human bones found there were a mixture of cremated, and un-cremated bones; the older, smaller tombs around it generally contain burnt bones. Extensive burning took place on the area of the site before the chamber was erected.
Listoghil points at a low saddle-like formation in the Ballygawley Mountains, 6.5 km to the east-southeast. Sunrise in this position coincides with the start and the end of winter, which are traditionally important seasonal festivals in the Gaelic calendar. This happens on 31 October and on 10 February in our modern calendar, dates which do not coincide exactly with a modern astronomical cross-quarter day. But the alignment with the axis of the chamber and the illumination of the chamber by sunlight coincides to the day with that of another Neolithic passage tomb, the Mound of the Hostages at the heart of the Tara complex. [4]
County Sligo is a county in Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region and is part of the province of Connacht. Sligo is the administrative capital and largest town in the county. Sligo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county was 65,535 at the 2016 census. It is noted for Benbulben Mountain, one of Ireland's most distinctive natural landmarks.
The court cairn or court tomb is a megalithic type of chambered cairn or gallery grave. During the period, 3900–3500 BCE, more than 390 court cairns were built in Ireland and over 100 in southwest Scotland. The Neolithic monuments are identified by an uncovered courtyard connected to one or more roofed and partitioned burial chambers. Many monuments were built in multiple phases in both Ireland and Scotland and later re-used in the Early Bronze Age.
Carrowmore is a large group of megalithic monuments on the Coolera Peninsula to the west of Sligo, Ireland. They were built in the 4th millennium BC, during the Neolithic. There are thirty surviving tombs, making Carrowmore one of the largest clusters of megalithic tombs in Ireland, and one of the 'big four' along with Carrowkeel, Loughcrew and Brú na Bóinne. Carrowmore is the heart of an ancient ritual landscape which is dominated by the mountain of Knocknarea to the west. It is a protected National Monument.
Knocknarea is a large prominent hill west of Sligo town in County Sligo, Ireland, with a height of 327 metres (1,073 ft). Knocknarea is visually striking as it has steep limestone cliffs and stands on the Cúil Irra peninsula overlooking the Atlantic coast. At the summit is one of Ireland's largest cairns, known as Queen Maeve's Cairn, which is believed to contain a Neolithic passage tomb. In recent years there has been concern that the ancient cairn, a protected National Monument, is being damaged by climbers. There are also remains of several smaller tombs on the summit. Knocknarea overlooks the Carrowmore tombs and is thought to have been part of an ancient ritual landscape.
Corn Hill, also called Cairn Hill or Carn Clonhugh, is a hill in County Longford, Republic of Ireland. It lies north of Longford, between Drumlish and Ballinalee, in the parish of Killoe. At 278 metres above sea level, it is the highest hill in the county and has a television mast on the top which rises 123 metres above the peak of the hill.
Carrowkeel is a cluster of passage tombs in south County Sligo, Ireland. They were built in the 4th millennium BC, during the Neolithic era. The monuments are on the Bricklieve Hills, overlooking Lough Arrow, and are sometimes called the Bricklieve tombs. They are named after the townland of Carrowkeel in which most of them are located. Nearby are the Caves of Kesh and Heapstown Cairn. The Carrowkeel tombs are protected National Monuments and are considered one of the "big four" passage tomb cemeteries in Ireland, along with Carrowmore, Brú na Bóinne and Loughcrew.
Megalithic monuments in Ireland typically represent one of several types of megalithic tombs: court cairns, passage tombs, portal tombs and wedge tombs. The remains of over 1,000 such megalithic tombs have been recorded around Ireland.
Gavrinis is a small island in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, France. It contains the Gavrinis tomb, a megalithic monument notable for its abundance of megalithic art in the European Neolithic. Administratively, it is part of the commune of Larmor-Baden.
The Tumulus of Bougon or Necropolis of Bougon is a group of five Neolithic barrows located in Bougon near La-Mothe-Saint-Héray, between Exoudon and Pamproux in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. Their discovery in 1840 raised great scientific interest. To protect the monuments, the site was acquired by the department of Deux-Sèvres in 1873. Excavations resumed in the late 1960s. The oldest structures of this prehistoric monument date to 4800 BC.
Slieve na Calliagh are a range of hills and ancient burial site near Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland. The summit is 276 metres (906 ft), the highest point in the county. On the hilltops are about twenty passage tombs, some decorated with rare megalithic art, which were built in the 4th millennium BC. Also called the Loughcrew tombs, it is one of the main passage tomb cemeteries in Ireland, along with Brú na Bóinne, Carrowkeel and Carrowmore.
Nordic megalith architecture is an ancient architectural style found in Northern Europe, especially Scandinavia and North Germany, that involves large slabs of stone arranged to form a structure. It emerged in northern Europe, predominantly between 3500 and 2800 BC. It was primarily a product of the Funnelbeaker culture. Between 1964 and 1974, Ewald Schuldt in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania excavated over 100 sites of different types: simple dolmens, extended dolmens, passage graves, great dolmens, unchambered long barrows, and stone cists. In addition, there are polygonal dolmens and types that emerged later, for example, the Grabkiste and Röse. This nomenclature, which specifically derives from the German, is not used in Scandinavia where these sites are categorised by other, more general, terms, as dolmens, passage graves and stone cists.
Miosgán Meadhbha, anglicized Miosgan Meva and also called Maeve's Cairn, is a large cairn on the summit of Knocknarea in County Sligo, Ireland. It is thought to conceal a passage tomb from the Neolithic. It is the largest cairn in Ireland, excepting those at Brú na Bóinne in Meath.
Creevykeel Court Tomb is one of the finest examples of a court tomb remaining in Ireland. The monument is located in the N15 Donegal to Sligo road, 50 meters north of Creevykeel cross-roads close to Cliffoney village in County Sligo. The original name for the Creevykeel monument is Caiseal an Bhaoisgin, the Fort of Bhaoisgin, Tobar an Bhaoisgin being the name of the well near the cairn. A second megalithic monument existed 300 meters to the north, but it was demolished around 1890.
The Gaulstown Portal Tomb or Gaulstown Dolmen is a megalithic portal tomb situated in Gaulstown, Butlerstown in County Waterford in the Republic of Ireland. It lies about 7 km south west of Waterford City.
Trefignath is a Neolithic burial chamber near Trearddur, south of Holyhead on Holy Island, off Anglesey in Wales. In its most complete form it included a large cairn covering three stone tombs, set on a small knoll. It was excavated between 1977 and 1979, revealing several phases of occupation with three separate burial chambers built in succession. It is a scheduled ancient monument, maintained by Cadw.
Cummeen Court Cairn is a court cairn and National Monument located in County Sligo, Ireland.
Carns Cairn is a cairn and National Monument located in County Sligo, Ireland.
Knockmaree Dolmen, or Knockmaree Cist, is a prehistoric site of the Neolithic period, in Phoenix Park just north of Chapelizod, near Dublin, Ireland. Other forms of the name are Knockmary or Knockmaroon Dolmen, or Cnoc-Maraidhe.
Passage tombs are a category of Megalithic monument from the Neolithic period. They are found in most regions of Ireland but are more prevalent in the Northern half of the island. The usage period of Irish passage tombs date from c. 3750 B.C. to about 2500 B.C. About twenty clusters are recorded in Ireland, but the best known examples are found along a curved trajectory from the west coast to the east, including the centres of Carrowmore and Carrowkeel in County Sligo, and Loughcrew and the Boyne Valley in County Meath.
The Coolera Peninsula is a peninsula in Sligo Bay, County Sligo, Ireland. It is the most populous of County Sligo's peninsulas, and the second-largest by land area. The primary population centres on Coolera are the coastal town of Strandhill on its western shore, and Magheraboy, a suburb of Sligo town.