'Crookan Cairn' : Cairn
Visit Notes
Sunday, 21st July 2002
What an amazing place! This is mentioned in Burl's gazetteer as being a stone circle, but it's hard to decide, because it lies around an odd mound giving the impression that it may contain a cairn. Certainly the 'mound' in the middle is made of rubble type rocks.
It is an ovoid structure with its main axis east-west. There is a fantastic stone on the north east corner that is a granite block with a sloping top facing outwards. This sloping face is covered in a layer of quartz. As this faces north east the summer solstice sunrise must have shone off this face when the quartz covering was more complete. It would appear that the stone faces towards either Howth, Lambay or somewhere in between the two. It must be a truly spectacular site to watch the sunrise from here. This I think may be next year's goal.
Continuting this north east line to the opposite side of the 'circle' you come to the only pointed stone in the group. This adds emphasis to the importance of this alignment. This stone seems (from its colouring) to have an iron content.
There is another great stone in the group which is a quartz conglomerate, a ttype of stone that I have not encountered in the Wicklows before.
This is just 30m from the mound on Knockanvinidee and so shares the same views. These take in the Sligo mountains, Loughcrew, Tara, Slieve Gullion and the Mournes.
There is no doubt in my mind that this site had major signficance in the Dublin area. It is still a great place and a great experience.
Sunday, 19th March 2006
I don't think I can add anything to what I said on my previous visit! This is a wondeful monument.
Like this monument
Marked Sites
Random Gazetteer
A Selection of Other Cairns
About Coordinates Displayed
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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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