Knocknashee : Sacred Hill

CountySligo
Grid RefG 555 190
Longitude8° 40' 50.17" W
Latitude54° 7' 5.05" N
ITM east480366
ITM north584435
Nearest TownTobercurry (7.8 Km)
OS Sheet25
UTM zone29U
UTM x449041
UTM y5761192
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Visit Notes

Sunday, 10th October 2004

When people think of sacred hill they (quite rightly) think of Knocknarea (County Sligo), but Knocknashee needs to be placed in its true position as another fine example. Its profile and size is very simlar to Knocknarea, but Knocknashee is land-locked in a vast fertile plane.

Driving around the area to the east of the Ox Mountains its magnificent form is impossible to ignore. Standing at the many tombs in the area Knocknashee dominates the skyline. Oddly though the tombs only occur to the west of the hill, but when visiting them all becomes clear for they are located at points where both Knocknarea and Knocknashee can be seen.

Throughout the latter part of this trip I was constantly in the shadow of this beautiful hill, but when it came to climbing it to visit the passage tomb I just didn't have the energy. It really is massive and the very steep sides make it more difficult to climb than Knocknarea. I will be back and I will climb it, but I will make it the first thing I do on the trip. The views from up there must be stunning!

In the late 1980s a hill fort was identified encircling the upper plateau. Could this actually have been a much older earthwork with massive ritual significance?

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About Coordinates Displayed

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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