I really wasn't expecting to go to a ring cairn in Ireland, but I did and it is a great one.
How do I explain this superb structure? Right. Imagine a very large banjo. Place this on the ground. Build a 3m high cairn around it so that when you remove the banjo you have a circular clearing in the middle and an entrance passage where the handle was. OK so far? Now, build a stone circle around the inside edge of the clearing and insert several kists into the cairn around the outside.
There you go. Five points for the first person to build one!
The cairn, in the most part, is now higher than 1m now, but one section of it, opposite the entrance, remains to a height of three meters. The stones that make up the stone circle are no more than a meter tall and all pretty consistant.
It was a very pleasant surprise to be taken to this one and I can't wait for an excuse to go back or the chance to see another one.
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. |