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Loughcrew or Lough Crew () is an area of historical importance near Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland. It is home to a group of ancient tombs from the 4th millennium BC, some decorated with rare megalithic art, which sit on top of a range of hills. The hills and tombs are together known as Slieve na Calliagh ( Sliabh na Caillí) Slieve na Calliagh/Sliabh na Caillí. Placenames Database of Ireland. and are the highest point in Meath. It is one of the four main passage tomb cemeteries in Ireland and is a protected National Monument. The area is also home to the Loughcrew Estate, from which it is named.
No comprehensive dating programme has been conducted there, but the monuments are estimated to date from about 3300 BC. The monuments consist of cruciform chambers, all of which would have been covered by mounds. A unique style of petroglyphs is found there, including lozenge shapes, leaf shapes, as well as circles, some surrounded by radiating lines. photos of megalithic art in Cairn T from knowth.com The and structural stones of the monuments tend to be from local green gritstone, which was soft enough to carve.
In 1980 Irish-American researcher Martin Brennan discovered that Cairn T in Carnbane East is directed to receive the beams of the rising sun on the spring and autumnal equinox - the light shining down the passage and illuminating the art on the backstone.Documented in photos and videos taken on site for six years in a rowBrennan, Martin, The Stars and the Stones: Ancient Art and Astronomy in Ireland - Thames and Hudson (1983); later re-published as The Stones of Time (1996). Brennan also discovered alignments in Cairn L (), Knowth, and Dowth in the Boyne Valley. The Cairn T alignment is similar to the well-known illumination at the passage tomb at Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange), which is aligned to catch the rays of the winter solstice sunrise.
Irish folklore holds that it is bad luck to damage or disrespect such tombs and that doing so could bring a curse.Sarah Champion & Gabriel Cooney. "Chapter 13: Naming the Places, Naming the Stones". Archaeology and Folklore. Routledge, 2005. p.193Doherty, Gillian. The Irish Ordnance Survey: History, Culture and Memory. Four Courts Press, 2004. p.89 However, some of the Loughcrew tombs have been vandalised with graffiti, and security patrols have been put in place. "Security patrols put in place after vandalism at Neolithic site". The Irish Times, 30 April 2021.
The Napiers built an extensive estate of some 180,000 acres (730 km²) in north County Meath in the subsequent centuries which mirrored that developed by their neighbouring Cromwellians, the Taylors of Headfort. Following a third and devastating fire, in 1964, the three Napier sons went to court and requested that the state allow the family trust to be broken up and the estate divided between the three sons. Subsequently, the house and gardens have been restored by Charles and Emily Napier, who open the gardens and run an annual opera festival.Lyttelton, Celia (May 2009) " Interiors: aria condition," Telegraph, UK.
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