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PRECEEDING 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------ SUCCEEDING HEADINGS :- /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 as a Court Cairn?

As I mentioned earlier, Cairn E has a huge surprise up its sleeve. It measures on its longitudinal axis 36m, with a 2 recessed, interned chamber on its NW point that faces to Maeve's cairn at Knocknarea.(Note6) On its SE point you find the classic horn arms of a court cairn. The whole structure is covered over in stones and the entrance to the SE face is closed, sealed off. Macalister and others couldn't find an entrance, but I'll show you there has to be one. The reason is quiet simple, the long axis of this cairn renders a counter azimuth of 152.5° (332.5-180). I was as curious as anybody else as to what lay at that south face . Only one other cairn, O, has a SE facing on Carrowkeel. What a surprise I got.

The meridian azimuth line cuts through the Moon's Southerly extreme declination point(it's Major Standstill). This extends the seasonal range that the builders had carefully evolved with cairns G and H. In the table below I've narrowed down altitude values to below 3°39' and azimuth from 152° -- 153°.

Draconic period for Moon phases from Cairn E, SouthEast face
17th Feb-->19th Feb3 x New moons
17th Mar-->18th Mar 2 x 1/4 moons
14th Apr1 x 1/2 moon
11th May-->12th May2 x 3/4 moons
6th June--> 7th June1 x Full moon; 1 x 3/4 moon
3rd July---> 4th July 2 x Full moons
31st July 1 x Full moon
27th Aug-->28th Aug2 x 3/4 moons
21th Oct1 x 1/4 moon

Once again from above we have a 27 day period, only this time it stretches to October, covering 3/4ths of the year. If the NW end of cairn E has this chamber 'tagged' onto it and it points to Maeve's cairn, what can this mean? Obviously the underlining court cairn is older than the NW insertion. Irish court cairns can go back to the 4th millennium bc, but chronology of Irish tombs is recently in flux due to Goran Burenhult's excavations at Carrowmore with his Swedish team ,and it's not unusual to have a court cairn with multiple openings.There's a famous one in the Channel Islands ,at Guernsey, which was built in four stages. During new phases the builders filled in the interior and closed it off. Then opened up an eastern end to it. The Camster cairns at Caithness, in Scotland, also have this double entrance feature, with distinctly different styled outlines and double horns at the entrances.(Note7) Did it mean that the users of the SE face (E) decided to seal off that end and 'point' to Maeve's cairn, because that huge cairn may have taken over the sight lines? or was there some other intended purpose?

Queen Maeve's cairn is a little disappointing up close and has the traces of a kerbstone surrounding to its base.(see below)

Miosgan Meadbhda

But the entrance is 'unopened', its secrets remain hidden. At one point in the distant past it was certainly alive and kicking. To appreciate its beauty you have to look at aerial photographs, then you can discern its conical shape and flat top, just like Newgrange. Also from the air you can detect a sloped groove in its south facing side. Is this the result of millennia of decay at a weak point that has caused slippage? Or is it evidence of the entrance? I think its the entrance and in fact I'd stick my neck out and say you'd find it between 150° and 154° azimuth. That would afford an opening SE facing and integrate Carrowkeel intimately with Knocknarea proper. If there's one thing people love its a mystery that can be solved.