Fourknocks

Venue: Fourknocks

We have shared many get-togethers in Fourknocks over the years and also held special occasions such as Dana's Months Mind - You can read more here.....

Free entry up to dusk every day. A sign at the roadside advises you get the key from Mr. White with his phone number and directions. You will also need to give him a small amount of cash as a deposit, which is returned when you return the key. This is a self-service visitor attraction. The nearest toilets, cafe and shops are at the Seamus Ennis Centre in The Naul. Parking is limited to a maximum of about 5 cars, on the roadside.

There are a couple of small steps, in a wall, up to a pathway and short walk to the mound. In an adjacent field, overgrown with bushes, you pass another two mounds which are not accessible.

As you swing open the heavy metal door crouch low and step through the short passage into another world. Leave the door open and daylight floods the space. Your eyes become accustomed to the low light level in a couple of minutes. There are three small box-like spaces off the main chamber, and lots of fascinating rock art.

Martin notes that...

... the passage was filled by burials during the Stone Age hence closing off the chamber. The Chamber of the “Mound of the Hostages” (on the Hill of Tara) was also filled by burials from the Bronze Age, but its Stone Age function of aligning to the Samhain sun rise is still observable today. The sunrise is most accurate for about a week around Samhain, and interestingly one of the great feasts associated with Tara was the Samhain week long celebration

Although no solar alignments are obvious, perhaps at this monument the connections are stellar.

Martin has noted:

According to Brennan, Fourknocks I is aligned 17° east of North, which just eliminates any of the direct lunar or solar alignments with the passage (but not the chamber). However, during the Stone Age the passage was aligned with the helical rising of the “W” shaped constellation of Cassiopeia.

For more information go to an article written by Martin... An interpretation of Fourknocks by Martin Dier