A Winter Solstice Alignment
A Winter Solstice
Alignment
A Winter Solstice
Alignment
near Westport, Co. Mayo
When one thinks of
the winter solstice in Ireland their thoughts turn at once to the mighty
megalithic tumuli of the Boyne valley the most famous of which is Newgrange,
with its mighty mound and passage-grave and its world renowned solar-alignment.
However, closer to home, at Killadangan near Westport, members of the
Mayo Historical & Archaeological Society have discovered that a stone-row,
situated inside an ancient enclosure on a salt-marsh, has an NE-SW orientation,
and actually lines up with a niche in the hills where the sun appears
to set on December 21st, a most significant date in the ancient world.
Observations have been carried out over a number of years and these have
revealed that the sun sets at that particular datum at 1.50pm on the afternoon
of the winter solstice.
The phenomenon is the subject of an article written by Gerry Bracken of
Westport in the current Winter (1999) edition of the magazine "Archaeology
Ireland".
The site has a number of other interesting
features including a fulachta-fiadha (an ancient cooking site), a low
stone circle, and several other outlying standing stones which may also
have archeo-astronomical significance.
The photo shows the stone-row and the sun, as it appears to set in the
niche on a ridge near Croagh Patrick.