Carrowmore - County Sligo

Carrowmore is located in the County Sligo, Ireland. It is one of the four largest existing passage tomb cemeteries in the country and also the second largest cemetery in Europe.

The Carrowmore site is within an area of more than 1.5 square miles, hosting stone rings, dolmens and passage cairns.

There are about 30 megalithic tombs in Carrowmore today. Most of the tombs are a combination of small passage-tombs and dolmens, others however are result of transformation between the heavy kerbs of cairns and stone circles.

Every one of the tombs lies on a small platform of earth and stone and it is embraced by a boulder ring from twelve to fifteen metres in size.

Most of the tombs are hard to identify although there are quite a few that are well preserved.

All the Tombs were numbered by George Petrie in 1837 and forty three years later William Gregory Wood-Martin made the first excavation.

Tomb 4 dates from 4,600 BC and it is one of the oldest and smallest tombs in the cemetery.

Tomb 7 probably dates from 3,825 BC and it is one of the greatest examples of dolmen and circle in the complex. It is situated in the centre of a 13m circle which consists of thirty two boulders.

North of the tomb 7 you can see tomb 9, which consists of eight boulders.

Tomb 19 is the largest of all the boulder circles and is around seventy feet in diameter with forty nine stones.

One of the largest tombs in the Carrowmore cemetery is the double boulder circle tomb 27, dated around 3,825 BC.

On the highest place in the complex stands tomb 51, or also called Listoghil. It was excavated in 1990s by the Swedish archaeologist Goran Burenhult and it is known as the largest tomb in the cemetery in size and is between 35 to 41 metres.

Previously the tombs were considered simply as a depository for the dead, they are now one of the greatest landmarks as well as very significant monuments in Ireland.

The Carrowmore cemetery is open daily from 10am to 6pm, 9th April to the14th Ocober.

Address:
Carrowmore
Sligo
County Sligo
Ireland

Tel: +353 71 9161 534

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