HEADINGS :- / Carrowkeel Cairn Complex / Cairns G and H / Azimuth 313° and its Significance / Tracking the Moon and Sun / Capella to the Rescue / Fire / Descent of the Gods / Other Considerations / Cairns B,E and K / Cassiopeia and Cygnus / Miosgan Meadhbha(Queen Maeve's Cairn) Knocknarea / Cairn E as a Court Cairn / A Complete Surprise / A Ground Plan in Mind / Dating the Site / Intra-Cairn Alignments / Preliminary Findings / Conclusions
Cairn E proves to be quite a conundrum. It possesses a long barrow-like cairn with two horns at its SE face. On its opposite end a small 2 chambered grave has been 'interned' into the cairn material itself. This hybrid tomb suggests a shift in usage and appears to hide a court cairn like structure underneath. Cairn E may have more surprises up its sleeve as we'll see later. Cairn B is another of the undifferentiated types except here there is only one side recess on the right hand side as you look into the cairn.
One other notable point to emphasis concerns a cluster of 4 cairns in close proximity to each other which lie on the central limestone finger of the complex. Cairns G, H, and K are all step elevated down the North facing slope of their limestone escarpment. There is an unidentified cairn, which we'll call X( lying just below G) which is in ruins as are cairns F and H. Cairn E's capstone is missing but the interior is intact. It appears that a delibrate attempt was made by the cairn builders to have each opening unobstructed by the next one up.
We can now start to examine the alignmentsof these structures. It should be first noted that all central azimuths are taken from the back walls of the cairn chambers except in the case of the allee coudee (cairn H) which has two orthostats (R6 and R8) that appear to be the intended target of the Sun and the Moon. Field of view increases the closer you come to the passage entrances from the back. All Orthostats are labelled left to right as you face into the cairns (in keeping with archaeological convention).
One of the most frustrating problems that researchers face when they acquire cairn plans and directional arrows is that of asking is the direction shown Grid North, True North or Magnetic North? If its Magnetic North, then in what year was the reading taken. It appears that on MacAlister's plans he used a magnetic compass because his directions for cairns E and K, which can be terrestrially verified, differ and his remainder alignments appear to be inconsistent. The most westerly alignments concern Cairns G and H. Cairn H's central Azimuth line is 317 ° with a side to side range that covers 312 - 322°.The recent observance of the sun's rays entering Cairn G through a roofbox like slit on June 21st brings into question whether these two cairns aligned with the Summer's Solstice point.(Note3)
At this particular latitude the Sun and Moon going through their cycles attain their respective major 'standstill' points at sunset during the Summer Solstices. A standstill point is where a celestial body travels no further North or South from a particular azimuth degree. In the case of Carrowkeel the sun's cycle would have seen it set gradually Northwards throughout the early Spring, then slow down until it reached its most Northerly point at which it would appear to 'stand still' for a period of 14 - 15 days right over the Summer Solstice period. Then it would gradually retreat backwards setting closer to the Ox Mts.
Likewise the Moon's orbital cycle would take it to a maximum
Northerly point , its major standstill. However the Moon's orbit has
an extreme North and Southdeclinationacross the ecliptic
(path of the Sun). Its declination can range from +5 °
above the ecliptic to -5 ° below it. Therefore the Moon
oscillates back and forth as it travels in the heavens.
Here at Carrowkeel, the Moon attains its extreme Northerly
declination point at Moonset.This gives it an azimuth of
322 °.Those sharp eyed among you will say how come if you
add 5° to 313° for the sun you do not get 322°
for the moon.This is because of celestial dynamics involving
the ecliptic tilt,(see fig. below)
the pivot point of the sunset at Summer solstice,
the earth and moon's rotations etc. Its easier to
illustrate this phenomenon,
than to try to fully explain it.
The central azimuth of Cairn G is 319 °. These two cairns and maybe the smaller ruined Cairn C were set up to collect light from the Solar and lunar luminaries at sunset.
Their light would always beam in at those azimuths regardless of time variants going back millennia.
The range of Azimuth for Cairn G is 317° - 321 °. Part of Cairn G's range is covered by Cairn H but because of the Moon's erratic flight across the ecliptic, the cairn builders made sure that the Moon would be the primary element to cast its light inside BOTH end recesses. Moonlight would enter Cairn H first and reflect into its back recess because of the passage curve mentioned earlier.Then it would travel into Cairn G through theroofboxslit and enter the left side recess first ,then sweep to the back recess wall as you look in and finally illuminate the right hand recess before disappearing under the horizon.
The sun's travel would be decidedly different. It would come into Cairn H skimming the right hand orthostats and reflecting off R6 and R8 into the end chamber then it would progress to enter the roofbox slit in Cairn G but because the right line of orthostats are not aligned to azimuth 312 °, the sun's light would not be parallel to the passageway but always 5 ° angled off. This is the cause of sunlight hitting a left end orthostat just past the left recess today.Theprecession of the equinoxes will not alter this because the sun is at its standstill point
