Deep in the dead center of Ireland’s Coolera Peninsula is a gigantic tomb, estimated to be 7,400 years old and thereby holding the world record for the earliest known freestanding stone architecture.
This massive monument is in Carrowmore and is surrounded on all sides by as many as 100-200 other what-is-thought-to-be portal tombs, almost all facing this central burial chamber. I use the terms “cemetery, tombs, and burial chambers” loosely, because—although human bones were found in and about the place—no one has a clue about what was going on. If they were simply burial chambers, then why were they so elaborate? If they had religious significance, then what was it? 
Most of the portal tombs were at the center of “dolmen circles,” created from 30-40 large boulders, and it is thought that they were part of a huge city for the dead…or something like that!
On top of each low mountain surrounding Carrowmore is another monument,
making this area Ireland’s largest monumental complex and one of the most enormous sacred landscapes of the world.
There are about 30 megalithic tombs that can be explored at Carrowmore.
The central tomb, Listoghil, is at the highest point in this city for the dead. I prefer the name “Giant’s Tomb” which was passed down to me by purveyors of Irish lore. It seems that the land was inhabited by giants originally, but now the native population appears to be diminutive leprechauns. I’m not sure if Carrowmore holds any key to the shift in demographics, but it’s possible.
At any rate, Listgihl has now been excavated, and visitors can walk in to see the restored cairn (pile of stones). Most of the cairns were formed from a number of incredibly huge boulders topped with a capstone. (…Sounds like an academic requirement—)
The capstones weighed so many thousands of pounds that no one knows how they were lifted into place. (…Sounds like an academic requirement—) 
It is believed that these huge stones formed a burial chamber.
It was another glorious day in May
and a perfect time to go for a stroll!
Like so much of Ireland and Great Britain, you can walk almost anywhere you please…as long as you close the gates behind you!
But, as we meandered
I kept puzzling over the same questions that people have been asking for ages:
What does all this mean?
Why did people undertake such a mammoth task? What in the world inspired them? What did they believe about what they were doing? What was their goal, and did they reach it? Was their motivation simply physical or was there some spiritual element? Did they mean to transmit a message to future generations? 
How did they organize themselves, and how did they ever accomplish so much?
It seems that I will never know! And so, it occurred to me that if I want to make a statement, it needs to include words! Without a clearly articulated message, even the most monumental effort would end up as nothing more than a magnificent mystery to others. Do I aspire to being one of the oldest, biggest curiosities in the world, or do I want to live a life that leaves a message?
“This then is the message which we have heard of him,and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
“For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11).
Those are some spectacular rock piles. It sure would be neat to know the answers to your questions. What in the world were those people doing? How did they do it? Amazing.
I see these remnants as whats left of an ancient society that at one time covered the world.Perhaps even to before the world divided as it is to day.Just my take from all I’ve read and studied.
Never thought of it that way, although I realize there are ancient remnants of a similar nature around the world. I’ve even noticed references to stone circles in biblical literature. Do you have any personal thoughts on the meaning?
Really nice and clear blog. This is a very curious set of structures. It irritates that just because there are a few stiffs found the place is a cemetery. The structures fall under a useful grouping within the Ancient Solar Premise.
Stone circles (remnants of the footings of circular dwelling).
Cairns said to be tombstones (remnants of stone age altar tables).
Portal ‘tombs’ (remnants of winter dwellings).
Hill top structures (remnants of solar chambers)
When will these archaeologists wake up to the idea that these were useful structures originally and as they fell from use bodies were dumped there. One clearly built tomb does not mean everything else was as well. The stone age folk had more pressing needs than just marking graves, housing, food, winter warmth and energy can be met with those structures. Instead of practical uses the corpses got better homes than the living, is this some divine comedy?
Thank you! What you say makes a lot more sense than the idea of everything revolving around death and/or sacrificial killing!
Of course they are not tombs; as the Secrets of the Sunsets folks point out there were a lot more pressing needs than the disposal of bodies 7,500 years ago. Clearly they were communal structures for survival during the northern winters and contained useful, inner, constructs for processing foods during the summer months. I didn’t see any reference to orientation in you piece but you can be sure they would be arranged to make the most of solar radiation unless there were signs of coal mines or oil wells.
Folks walked this planet for many years without fossil fuels so we would be derelict to ignore the enormous importance of the Sun. As to religious connotations… given the age of the structures and the Biblical age of the Earth… seems hardly worth wandering down that road.
Thank you! Yes, many of the structures face the sun, Newgrange being famous for it’s perfect orientation toward the sun. I love the idea of brilliant, practical shelters that make use of solar heat rather than everybody worshiping the sun!
Newgrange “faces the Sun” for one day (the winter solstice). Other sites have orientations toward either solstices or equinoxes and a few have alignments that correspond to the Celtic cross-quarter days (Samhain etc…,). At Carrowmore several of the hilltop cairns have solar or stellar alignments at various points of the year making the entire complex (among other things) a huge clock. Having been inside a number of these sites I would have to say that they would be unsuitable as habitations. Also, had they served as living quarters there would be evidences of that, potshards, marks from fire-pits, tools and the leavings from meals. Nothing of that sort has ever been found.
It is far more likely that the dead were cremated in cerimonies that took place outside and their ashes/bones were then inturred in the tombs (possibly to be removed again on holidays – denoted by the suns light entering the tomb).
Thank you for your insights and information. I marvel at the ingenuity of the ancient Celtic people and ponder all these things!
Thank you for your kind welcome. The structures we are talking about are pre Celtic, but there are those (myself included) who believe that the megalithic culture that constructed them was absorbed into the Celtic culture as that became dominant.
You are posting some very nice photos which remind me of places I’ve visited and long to return to. Thank you for that.
Stone
Agreed that is the standard means to gauge a habitation, but it would be unwise to put a fire in the small cave like dwellings, it would gas the inhabitants. As sleeping quarters, those structures are warm in winter and cool in summer. American Indians still have lodges of this type that they sleep in. The shards and pots would be elsewhere if they used them and discarded them.
BTW Where are the cremation ashes?
The sun can be reflected into the interiors using metals, which the stone age folk seem to have been mining in enormous quantities even by orthodox accounts.
As for clocks, that is a lot of clocks, especially if one looks at the densely populated sites.
I could not agree more on these sites being pre-celtic, whether the celts evolved or absorbed is a question prehistorians are unlikely to fathom. But something of that nature, since these are much older than conventional dating would suggest.
Secrets,
I do not with to hyjack Kathi’s blog by turning this into a debate but I’m afraid I see no supporting evidence of your assertions. There is simply not room in most of the structures you are referencing for sleeping quarters, and certainly not enough to justify the massive time and manpower to move giant stones sometimes 100′s of miles so that a few people could sleep. Further, there is nothing in the Americas that comes close to the construction methods used by the megalithic builders except those monuments left over by the mound-people of the Mississippi valley and the pyramids of Mesoamerica (none of which were used as habitations). Plenty of ashes and bone fragments have been found in many of these sites. Poulnabrone for example contained the remains of at least 25 adults and children. Habitations always carry evidence of their previous hosts (your church will always be cleaner than your house) but none has ever been found in these sites. I think you are not taking into account the spiritual connection these people must have felt with the geography and cosmology of the natural environment they lived in. Certainly, given statements like this: “as they fell from use bodies were dumped there…,” you are ignoring the profound attention that our ancestors paid the the disposition of their dead.
Stone, what evidence would you expect if they did not cook in their sleeping quarters, used hot stones for meager energy and stone circles as grand solar palaces? Solar leaves no Ash for the fuel burners to carbon date.
As for the standard view you say I am not taking into account ‘the spiritual connection these people must have felt with the geography and cosmology of the natural environment they lived in’ well under the solar premise they organized their primitive homes homes to take advantage of the sun, geogrpahy, cosmology and geology (rocks). How does piling rocks up for the dead do this?
Just out of curiosity have you ever actually been into an ancient site and used it as an observatory? Anyone who has and understands astronomy will recognize the folly. A couple of sticks would do the job better than the stone age structures, a lot less effort. Fred Hoyls had the ancient s hop, skipping and jumping stones to ‘compute the moon cycles’, its a comedy.
You suggest I am ‘ignoring the profound attention that our ancestors paid the the disposition of their dead’ how does the standard view take into account that the dead were sleeping in better accomodation than the living in the winter? Seems contradictory unless of course one suprimposes an overly important reverence for the dead. No real gains for these people living in a rather cruel climate.
You have not heard of the Idiot Lord Intrusion Hypothesis, which suggests that from pyramids to stone age dwellings and mounds. Some idiot lord eventually decides to steal the kudos and efforts of the predecessors by utilizing one of their functional buildings as a tomb marker. Seems most Egyptologists have not fathomed this either.
Regards
Chris
Thank you for the information and ideas that you all have shared. I think it highlights the mystery around the monumental work that various ancient peoples have accomplished. I used to worry about all sorts of questions from the past. As a Bible-believing Christian, I got caught up in the debate over creation: Did God create the world in 6 literal, 24-hour days, 6 “ages,” or 6 indefinite time periods? My spiritual mom taught me Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret tings belong unto the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Since embracing that concept, I still try to study things and puzzle out as much as I can, but in areas where there isn’t a conclusive answer, I just commit my ponderings to the Lord as something that I will hopefully understand in the future, but if not, I know that He has already given us all the insight we need to live lives of holiness and goodness through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, saves us if we ask, and provides the grace for us to follow Him if we will.