Slieve na Calliagh: the cairns of Loughcrew

Anthony Murphy explores the cairns on Slieve na Calliagh, one of four hills at Loughcrew containing chambered cairns from the Neolithic.
This video was first published for Mythical Ireland patrons at www.patreon.com/mythicalireland on 27th October 2020.
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Brought to you by acclaimed author, photographer and astronomer Anthony Murphy. See more resources, photos and videos at www.mythicalir... Anthony is discoverer of a major archaeological find, one of the biggest in decades, near Newgrange (bit.ly/Newgrang...) and has appeared on television and in media all around the globe, including appearances on the History Channel, National Geographic, Channel 4, CNN, NBC News and the BBC.
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[@Scrapper.]

We are indeed fortunate to still have these treasures from far in the mists of time. Great video

[@vera.nadine]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, all love towards my ancestral home.

[@daisypeters3216]

I'm already here looking foward to another fascinating episode! See you all tomorrow!👍☘☘☘

[@davidmccormick9589]

Thank you for another great video of Irish History 😊

[@mythicalireland]

@davidmccormick9589 Cheers David. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@grahamfleming9179]

Thig an latha! Tha mi dol air ais do Erinn. Great video Anthony capturing neolithic Ireland! S math sin uabhasach breagha!

[@elauadeinsf]

I think I adore all your videos so far and I've watched 10!

[@TheCuriousCelt]

Thanks for the walk around and poetic narrative. 👍🍀 Amazing site.

[@ctkindyas]

Great job! Very very professional. Loved the music and your words too.

[@helenhershtjader5759]

Love the guided tour. Really captures the imagination. The artwork is amazingly rich and distinctive. Well done!

[@michaeljames5936]

Used to live in Co. Meath and visited Loughcrew many times. I think a little context, in terms of how it fits into the surrounding mythic landscape would help. This was a somewhat united culture with the rest of Ireland and had a 'us' identity with the then Brits!. I love Loughcrew, although my pics of me 'sacrificing' my then 4YO daughter on my ''Altar Stone'' seem silly now, I know it's just a hag's chair. NB. It's ten years since I was there, but even then you could still 'borrow the key', from a house a few miles away and enter the main tomb. That upright support of modern days, was not there then, so it may have changed, but it was so easy to 'borrow the key' and just, let yourself in, and be sure to return it', is the most Irish aspect of this today. We are lucky to have anything. Given the horrors the peoples have endured since that time, I'm surprised they hadn't 're-used' those stones years ago. Superstition kept them away, unlike the thieves, who will steal and sell any moveable piece of ancientness.

[@VinnieCamilleriMusic]

Amazing that!

[@PanglossDr]

I have been in Cairn T at dawn on the Autumn Equinox. It is a great experience.

[@lovesings2us]

This is so wonderful! Thank you! I felt like I was there because the presentation is so vivid! I wonder what is the relationship of the stories of the Cailleach creating the cairns, along with her chair, and the actual building of the cairns. I mean, do we know anything about when the stories started to emerge and who told them?

[@rainbowsprites22]

Another great video. Looks like a face carved Into the stone at 9.30 Never noticed it in person and have been many times . One of the best places in Ireland besides from Tara.

[@SeannachyMcPoet]

2nd time I've seen this video since 2021. Love your 'poetic' narration that moves with your lens, Hound of the Sea. I was gifted one of your prints. A droneseye view of Brugh na Boyne where my young prince godking ancestor's remains once lay, storing our DNA in an earbone, I'm told. It sits centered & framed on the white particle board which covers the mouth of an old fireplace in my bedroom. The entrance appears to be facing in the direction of the sunrise, as I fancy it doing. It is 25 yrs since I walked among the clocha na h-Éireann ársa. Tá súil agam gur féidir liom é sin a dhéanamh arís. Hope all is well.

[@declancleary8715]

First thanks for another great video, I love lough crew, I have a question, the hags chair, I've sat on that ,, is the hag you refer to the same hag as the hag of beara,? , my guess she is one and the same but I would like to hear what you think, thanks

[@maryhoban8506]

Thank you once again Anthony for keeping our great past alive, do you know where the stone for Loughcrew was sourced ?

[@lardooley8397]

The stone from which the Cairns were built, like most of the structures in the glacial Boyne Valley, came from glacial erratic deposited on the hills. Similarly, the white quartz is most likely local, and quartz veins are still appearing during quarrying at Snow's quarry, in the vicinity of the cairns, close to the Loughcrew Estate. Here also can be found limestone and chalk, so most, if not all, the stone is local, either glacial deposit, field clearance, or locally quarried.

[@mezmarionybarra]

Wonderful ❣

[@thechin2875]

I was up there last year beautiful but jaysus took the breathe outta me getting up them hills I tell ya

[@hilarydiouf9563]

I need to look into it further but for now I’m confused. Can you help me understand if the Equinox Stone in cairn T, the Calliagh’s cairn is lit on the equinox? You mentioned earlier cross quarter days of Samhain and Imbolc- was that just for cairn U? So are the cairns at loughcrew aligned to several celestial events. I’d appreciate anyone help understanding. Thanks.

[@mythicalireland]

Yes, Cairn T is aligned to the equinoxes. And yes, other cairns are aligned to cross-quarter solar events. Cairn L points to Samhain and Imbolc sunrise. Cairn S to Bealtaine and Lughnasa sunset. Cairn U to Samhain and Imbolc sunrise (same as Cairn L). Hope this helps.

[@SusanBelfast11]

Is there any campaign to get these beautiful stones covered? Does anybody know?

[@johnobrien7860]

Oh no no roof please . Dont turn it into a theme park .

[@ehr470]

They did it to represent the visuals they experienced after eating the liberty cap magic mushrooms which grow all over the hill, which evolved their minds into the human mind we know today.

[@Dankness-e6i]

Why is it ignored that they were covered in white quartz & pyramids? In the geometric shape of Pleiades. With carvings of Pleiades inside. I know the reason, but I'm hoping to point it out to others.

[@grahamoreilly1981]

Hags Chair looks like it was in a putty state whilst being molded and then set 🤔

[@catherinedonohue2662]

Cairn T is where Jeromiah the prophet in the bible is buried. Look it up. Now thats a religious fact for you.

[@Dankness-e6i]

Someone needs to explain to me why it's ignored that they were white quartz pyramids. Why is it ignored that they are geometrically laid out in the shape of Pleiades, and why is it ignored that they have carvings of Pleiades inside? I understand that the Aryans used the North Star that is in Pleiades but that does not mean we should be ignoring our history. This is the exact same as the triskele outside Newgrange. That is the North star, the stationary star. The sky spins around it. The centre point. The star of David is the same also. So are Celtic crosses. The true Irish history is being entirely erased for a political narrative.

[@sandraswift3489]

Interesting fact.cairn in ancient hebrew means.' as aaron'.

[@sandraswift3489]

Maybe aaron was buried this way in israel.as jeremiahs cave is there somewhere.with menorah carved inside

[@Unidentifying]

They need to do Chlorine 36 dating on this. Maybe its 30000+ years old