Loughcrew: An Equinox Morning

A rising sun attempts to burn off an early equinox mist (Image: Author)

That morning was particularly misty, which very much added to the occasion.  Arriving at a packed but silent carpark in the early morning gloom, we started the trek up to Cairn T. Its a short but steep enough climb with a few benches along the way for anyone who needs to take a breather. Voices eventually followed by figures, came out of the gloom. People already coming back down, convinced the mist would not lift in time.

Cairn U – a smaller satellite tomb whose remaining upright orthosats look like old gnarled teeth…almost like an old hag’s teeth… (Image: Author)

At the top, we all floated around waiting. The OPW always have guide staff up there on equinox mornings and there was a small huddle of people gathered around the entrance. Others were off on their own, enjoying their own private moments. Some children playing. Some others praying. A lovely mix of old and young. The summit of Carnbane East really is a massive site when you factor in the space between all the smaller tombs and cairns which surround the central Cairn T. The few people milling around that morning barely registered within its overall potential capacity, reminding me that such sites were designed to hold hundreds if not thousands of people.

Such places tend to be discussed in terms of ‘the few’ – the stone age ritual specialists/elites to which access to the internal chambers was probably limited. But these ‘few’ would surely have been observed by ‘the many’ – hundreds of witnesses and onlookers filling up the outside areas. Amidst the kerbstones and the satellite tombs was probably as close as one would have got to such occasions back in the neolithic. A nice reminder that participation and presence outside such tombs were as much a part of the whole shebang as being on the inside. In actuality, those on the outside would have viewed and ‘received’ the rising sunlight long before those on the inside.

Loughcrew magic hour light. Not a bad place to meet the rising sun… (Image: Author)

The OPW staff were watching both the time & the sun burning off the mist, and eventually started calling everyone together. Everyone took it in turns to go inside the central chamber. There must have been, at any one time, about 25 people, so we rotated access several times. When sun broke eventually through the mist, although still diffused, it was enough to make a difference. Those of us outside heard the first audible gasps of appreciation from within. Someone perched high atop the tomb started a gentle rhythm on a bodhrán. Not exactly chronologically authentic, but more than appropriate all the same.

Sunlight streaming into Tomb Entrance, Cairn T. (Image: Author)

I went inside twice over the course of about twenty minutes. It was quite something to see the time-lapse passage of sunlight moving across the surface of decorated stones at the back of the chamber. Everyone marvels at the main inscribed decorations but not a lot of attention is paid to the more ‘subtextual’ decorations. The ‘pockmarked’ pecking and myriad small depressions in amongst the more overt motifs generally don’t get a look in. But in the line of transition between sharp light & darkness, the shadow moving slowing across the micro indentations of such pecked designs almost seem animated. An impossibly slow but still perceptible shadow dance across undulations in stone, especially if one were to trace it with a finger in tandem. That’s another aspect of passage tombs that doesn’t tend to get much attention outside of academic papers. It’s always seemed plausible (to me anyway) that tactile interaction with the slabs inside, in both light and darkness, played a part in ritual proceedings.

The tail end of a fading sun-kissed back stone, Cairn T. As stone age people would maybe have seen it…
(Image: Author)

Everyone else in there with me were suitably amazed for what seemed like ten seconds, and then spent the rest of their time trying to get the perfect picture. I chose to soak it all in instead. There are plenty of great pictures elsewhere on the net. They’re pretty nice and all, but not what such things are all about. The stone age designers of such tombs utilised architecture, light, darkness, touch and (probably) sound to effect an overall sensory experience. No amount of flash technology, or amplified lens filters is ever going to capture how it appears to the actual human eye. As I was leaving the second time, I took one picture, above, with no flash. It’s not very good, but I like it because of its shortcomings. In a way, it’s the closest one can maybe get to capturing and transmitting a tiny fragment of how it may have looked to neolithic eyes as the light faded.

Detail of decoration on horizontal roof slab (Image: Author)

Above is a picture, taken at another time in artificial light, of some of the motifs carved on one of the horizontal roof slabs. Always look up in a passage tomb. (Many people never do!) This is one of the more overt examples of neolithic intent and agency. Such slabs, where we can see them at Loughcrew and elsewhere, because of their relative inaccessibility show that neolithic people sometimes decorated them prior to final placement/tomb construction. Excavation at some passage tombs have previously revealed decorated stones that would never have been seen when such tombs were finished construction.

The back stone in artificial light (Image: Author)

The main back stone which receives the equinox light, again taken at another time in artificial light. I could go on and on about this one. Perhaps the most interesting thing, is its ‘depictive style’; a term used by some archaeologists to designate elements and motifs which seem to have been individually carved, at different times, without much consideration, or relationship to the those done previously. It’s an archaeology ‘of the now’, without much regard to the future.

Elsewhere at Loughcrew (and other such tombs – particularly on slabs at or near the entrances) a different design is thought to have been employed later on – one which involved an overall intention and inclusiveness of the entire stone surface/canvass, with several designs and motifs both respecting and interacting with each other. This is thought to be representative of a shift in neolithic intent. A more open design, with an eye towards larger public visibility. An ‘opening up’ perhaps of the tombs inner areas, at least to some visitors.

The ‘rear’ of Cairn T, looking east (Image: Author) – You could fit a lot of people around it, all of whom would have a clear view of the cairn itself and the rising equinox sun behind it. A great natural elevated ‘theatre space’ for ritual performances…

Surprisingly, as soon as the direct sunlight had passed, everyone pretty much packed up and left, leaving my party and a couple of new age mystical types the only people remaining. The new agers were engaging in some version of a ritual which involved circumnavigating the tomb, enclosing it in a line of brightly coloured powder. They seemed put out by our continued presence around the entrance way, so we withdrew to the back of the cairn, to let them finish their business. This done, they had a bit of a meditation at the top before leaving. Within a relatively short period, even on an equinox morning, we had the place to ourselves.

Northwest view from the summit of Cairn T. Carnbane West (another passage tomb) in the near distance
(Image: Author)