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 / Preliminiary Findings / Conclusions
Yes, fire would be the simplest way to indicate a point sight line in the dark. A fire would have been lit on Doomore hillock and therefore visible to people at the Carrowkeel group. All they would have to do is wait for Capella to set in line with the hillock in question and themselves. ( 2 points give a line, 3 for a direction). Then a series of large stones would have been set in a line with Capella and the Doomore fire point. This line of stones would serve as the alignment of the right passageway of Cairn H(as you look in).They could then set the left passageway from 3/4ths of the length in of the right one, (where the passage bends) and make it as wide as possible. There are two 'horn' like orthostats (L2, R2) which close inwards incairn H. These appear to be the focusing points for the beams. It should be noted here that we have two different and distinctive architectural layouts for Cairns G and H. Is it possible that the site was used by two different worshipping groups, the 'allee coudee' coming before the Irish style cruciform pattern? If so the Irish got the moon's travel right and narrowed down the entrance aperture( opening ) to cone down the moonbeam and direct it through a roofbox slit!!! But if the Bretons where there they added an unusual light reflection point to turn the moon's light around corners!!!
Its interesting to note that another terrestrial elevation point, Doomore Mt. in the Ox Mts. (not to be confused with Doomore hillock) at 272m in elevation gives a geodetically derived Azimuth of 317.5 ° at a distance of 21.2 km (13.25 statute miles)from Carrowkeel. But one other small hillock almost ties down the moon's northernmost standstill point.
Carricknasheeogue(180m) at a distance of 19.9 kms (12.44 statute miles) renders an Azimuth of 320° 9' and its slightly northwards of Doomore Mt. Most of the hillocks in the local area have at least one cairn on their hill tops. Certainly its easier to directly watch the setting moon than to try to watch the sun.The moon's phases would be observable from new to full moon and surprisingly moonlight could be visible (as reflection) within the cairns even if the moon was in its first 1/4 phase. ( a first 1/4 moon gives off a magnitude of -8, i.e. 67% the magnitude of a full phase moon). I've kept the altitude figure to below 3° and the azimuth span between 316° and 317°.
| 3rd Feb--->5th Feb | 1 x 3/4 moon ; 2 x full moons |
| 2nd Mar--->4th Mar | 3 x 3/4 moons |
| 30th Mar-->31thMar | 2 x 1/2 moons |
| 27th Apr-->28thApr | 1 x 1/4 moon ; 1 x 1/2 moon |
| 22ndMay->25thMay | 3 x 1/4 moons |
| 19th Jun-->20thJun | 2 x New moons |
| 17th July->19thJuly | 3 x New moons |
From our table above we can immediately see that the period of days between each cluster of observations gives us roughly a 27 day cycle (the Draconic period of the moon), this covers 6 months of the yearly solar cycle. However, our Neolithic observers would not have used 'days' as we know them, more than likely they would have counted the number of 'suns' between each lunar tracking taking mental note of where full and new moons occurred. We have two full moons signifying the Spring season, and three 'New' moons denoting Summer Solstice time.
Does this mean that the indigenous native population were trying to grow crops by the lunar cycle? Just what does the pinning down of these cycles mean?
Being able to fix the sun and the moon in their standstill positions means ensuring a regular calendrical timing device for their growing seasons. Solstical points mean maximum day/minimum night, the start of their summer season. A dateline by which they could plan ahead to sow crops or harvest them. It could also be very much purely a religious indicator for festivals and burial rituals where the cremated or inhumed remains were ceremoniously placed in the tomb on such important days to be bathed in the 'light of the Gods'. The Sun and Moon were certainly perceived as deities for Neolithic peoples and therefore one assumes sophisticated rituals took place at these religious 'shrines'. Just imagine if a soft red-orange light pervaded the inner sanctum of the cairns, perhaps heralding a ritualistic sacrifical procedure. Such a dramatic atmosphere would have added emphasis to the whole 'undertaking'. Thankfully this red-orange light from a lunar eclipse doesn't appear to occur at Carrowkeel. This is because the Azimuth difference between the sun and the moon needs to be less than 186° ,here the azimuth can only narrow down to 188° at a low horizon altitude; close and a very interesting idea indeed. A prehistoric Neolithic hut site was discovered on the Doonaveragh Mt. plateau on one of the limestone 'fingers' at Carrowkeel.(Note4) Archaeologist ,MacAlister, considered this the cairn builders habitation site on the rocky Karst landscape. However very little evidence of habitation was discovered there because the surface is heavily fissured and full of swallow holes. If this was indeed the builders site then considerable time was used to structure the Cairn complex over seasons, so it would seem.
