Loughcrew, Co Meath - " Back to Beginnings" - Solo show in Bru na Boinne Centre in Newgrange, Co Meath.

These are some images from an exhibition I had in the " Bru na Boinne" centre, in Newgrange, Co Meath in 2003.  I themed my work , on "Loughcrew",  which has is aligned to sunrise at the Spring and Autumn equinoxes, ( and also where I spent a memorable part of my childhood.).  Apart from it's huge historical importance, some of it's attraction is that it is so unspoilt, almost as if we were stepping back 2,500 - 3,000  years in time. Little humans that we are !! 
I have included a lot more information about Loughcrew cairns, at the end of the scroll of artworks.

Special thanks to Michael Fox for these images, which he kindly sent on to me after this exhibition..I had not thought to take a single copy of them, as I was so taken up with organising the show.

This is a link to his webpage.

http://www.knowth.com/art.htm 

The Loughcrew Hills are to be found about 3 kms east of the town of Oldcastle, Co. Meath. Located some 60kms from the mouth of the Boyne river , they provide a commanding view into both northern and southern provinces of Ireland . Three main summits break the skyline , known respectively ( west to east ) as Carnbarn ( 824 ft), Sliabh na Callighe (904 ft) and Patrickstown ( 885 ft ) .

On these heights , entire complexes of permanent stone and public structures were erected, possibly sometime before 3,000 BC. These Loughcrew sites have escaped the attention and well documented archaeological investigation devoted to their Boyne valley counterparts, even though the rock engraving techniques on the stones in these mounds appear to be more primitive, and possibly older in Loughcrew.

Among the Loughcrew Hills are to be found the remains of approximately thirty pre-historic, pre-Christian tombs. It is thought that there might originally have been 50-100 tombs. These tombs are often arranged in the typical passage grave formation of one large tomb, surrounded by smaller satellite tombs.

The Irish passage graves, usually on a hill top consist of a long stone passage, leading into a burial chamber..( usually a corbelled, stone tomb), the whole covered with a large mound of stones, and surrounded by a supporting kerbof large " megalithic" stones. The large slabs used in their construction consisted of the native rocks of Silurian grit.

At the equinoxes, a beam of sunlight enters the mounds through the entrance, and is projected and is projected into the chamber against the backstone, presenting a clear defined frame of light on the backstone and illuminating various and daily changing stone engravings for the few days of the equinoxes.

Megalithic art is highly abstract, displaying some of the improvisations of art and at times acting as ornament or decoration. It also exhibits the basic characteristics of a form of symbolic writing.

In Ireland , ( where the largest concentration of megalithic engravings on stones are found), these symbols are found on the passage mounds.

Ritual considerations seem to dominate in all the structures and in general, the art represents a semi magical projection on astronomy. It is likely that the mounds and symbols were sacred to the sun and moon, as images of both dominate megalithic art. Apart from these , of course , light itself is the chief focal element.

Megalithic art seems to be intentionally restricted to 9 basic geometric forms, - the cupmark, the line, the circle, the quadrangle, the arc crescent, the wavyline, the spiral , the oval and the zigzag, - and these are used to form all other marks and signs.