At last! A really good look at the Mound Of Hostages. The first time I was here it was surrounded by a shabby wooden fence and the grass on top was uncut, making it look like a large tribble or something.
Today, the fence was not in place and the mound had recieved a short back, top and sides. For the first time I got to gaze into the passage and see the beautifully carved orthostat inside. There would appear to be a large arrangement of concentric circles and two very deep cup and ring marks.
The Mound is once more behind a fence. The erosion around the entrance has been made good (again) so hopefully it will soon be set free!
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_A cold, wet and windy Samhain morning saw us standing on the Hill of Tara trying to see the back of the chamber lit up by the sun. We were rewarded for our madness by a short burst of sunlight that lit up the back corner surprisingly brightly.
The same view should be possible next weekend still, so I might be back with my tripod.
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_Follow the N3 from Dublin and turn left at the Village of Tara. Take the first right (past Rath Maeve) and the Hill Of Tara is 3 km on the left.
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. |