Knocknarea Mountain Sligo
Knocknarea is a flat-topped limestone mountain rising above the Cúil Irra Peninsula southwest of Sligo town, its summit crowned by the vast cairn of Medb's Cairn, a Neolithic passage tomb mound of approximately 40,000 tonnes of stone that is one of the largest prehistoric monuments in Ireland and is traditionally identified as the grave of the mythological Queen Maeve of Connacht. The combination of the mountain's distinctive profile visible from a wide area of Sligo and the extraordinary scale of the cairn on its summit creates one of the most powerful prehistoric landscape monuments in the west of Ireland.
The cairn on the summit, measuring approximately 55 metres in diameter and 10 metres high, has never been excavated and is believed to contain a passage tomb of the Neolithic period beneath the stone mound. Whether or not the mythological identification with Queen Maeve is historical, the scale of the cairn demonstrates the enormous investment of labour and resources that the community who built it was prepared to make, and its continued status as one of the most visible landmarks in the Sligo landscape reflects the sustained importance of this monument across five thousand years.
The ascent of Knocknarea from Strandhill or Grange provides excellent views of the surrounding Sligo landscape, the Benbulben plateau to the northeast, the Atlantic coast and the Carrowmore megalithic cemetery on the plain below visible in a panorama that encompasses the most remarkable prehistoric landscape in the west of Ireland.