Kilkenny’s megalithic tomb could have been the inspiration for world-famous Newgrange

In the depths of winter, in the hours before dawn, a field high on the side of a valley slope in South Kilkenny becomes a very busy place.

Braving the chill, ever-increasing crowds of people turn up every year to watch the rising sun on the Winter Solstice at the megalithic tomb of Knockroe.

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As the sun comes up on the morning of the solstice, and the days either side, it shines directly into the entrance of one of the tomb entrances.

The Knockroe passage tomb is unique, because the show doesn’t end at dawn. It is the only known passage tomb where another entrance is aligned to the solstice setting sun.

The two tombs, east and west, are 5,000 years old, and recent archaeological discoveries tell us that the latest burials were 1400 years later, in the early bronze age.

Muiris O’Sullivan, emeritus professor of archaeology at UCD, recently gave a talk on his work at Knockroe to the Kilkenny Archaeological Society in which he detailed some of the fascinating discoveries that have been made at Knockroe - and the many questions still to be answered by archaeologists.

When Professor O’Sullivan first visited Knockroe in 1987 it was overgrown with trees and undergrowth, a far cry from the beautifully maintained site visitors can see today.

Fast forward to 2023, and not only has the site been physically transformed, but its popularity has grown far beyond the local community.

Despite that, the ancient site holds many secrets, that are slowly being unearthed.

One of the most important discoveries at the site is the amount of cremated bone remains in the tombs. Excavations had taken place in the 90s and archaeologists thought they had found everything of value inside the tombs.

But in 2010 Prof. O’Sullivan and a team went back for just two weeks, mostly to help out the OPW who were doing some work in the area. He had heard that some bone fragments had started to be uncovered by moving stones.

He took one plastic bag with him for samples. He returned to UCD with nine crates of bone fragments!

More than one and a half million fragments, or 200kgs of bone, are still being analysed, although that body of work is close to completion. Less than 1% of the bones are unburned.

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Dr Jonny Geber, of Edinburgh University, is studying the bones. He will be well known in Kilkenny for his work on the bones discovered in a forgotten famine-era burial site during the construction of MacDonagh Junction shopping centre.

Funding from the Royal Irish Society meant some of those fragments could be carbon dated. The process is complicated, but the results Prof. O’Sullivan spoke about are fascinating.

Last year 16 bone samples were carbon dated. The earliest sample was dated to 3440 BCE, a couple of hundred years earlier than most passage tombs. The main burial activity is from 3200 BC to 3000 BCE, with a long gap and then early bronze age burials, around 2000 BCE.

One of the fragments analysed was the unburned skull bone. This turned out to be the oldest burial on the site.
Another fascinating aspect of Knockroe, and the reason Prof. O’Sullivan first visited the site, is the megalithic rock art on the stones in the tombs.

The artwork is over 5000 years old, but has suffered badly over the years as the rock naturally chips away. It has become almost impossible to see most of the art except in perfect light.

While most visitors might spot just one of the decorated stones, in the Eastern tomb alone there are 10 to 12, with 35 on the whole site.

It’s easier to see in the Western tomb - classic passage tomb art of spirals and whorls in the stone. Over the years many theories about the meaning, if any, of the patterns have been put forward. Many of the designs match those at passage tombs like Newgrange and some in Brittany and would have taken enormous effort.

The stones themselves are not placed randomly on the site. A geologist’s report showed quartzite used around the entrances, like at Newgrange, then green sandstone branching out from that. There are two, coarse-grained sandstone rocks situated on the site, facing each other.

Prof. O’Sullivan said it was at Knockroe he first became aware that there was “something really special” going on with the rocks on the sites.

Despite having much in common, the big difference between Knockroe and the Boyne Valley passage tombs is that the people who built at the northern site had to travel long distances to assemble the exact same stones as those in Knockroe. Some came from Dundalk Bay and Carlingford, some came from the Wicklow mountains or islands off the coast.

In Knockroe everything comes from within a few kilometres of the site itself.

What does that mean? Is it that Knockroe is the model they were trying to replicate or was the location of Knockroe chosen because of the local materials they wanted to replicate what was built in the Boyne Valley?

Excavations have also unearthed pottery in the tombs, from classic burial carrowkeel pottery and later beaker ware and grooved pottery.

For Prof. O’Sullivan, probably the most interesting artefact found at Knockroe is a fragmented decorated bone pin. Only three are in existence already, two from Knowth one from Fournocks, Meath.

Archaeologists have also found remains of antler bones. This is significant because it’s the best evidence for the existence of red deer in Ireland at the time, provided that they are not importing the antler. No other deer bones were found so further analysis will have to take place.