Passage graves are set in a mound of earth or stone with a passage leading to the central chamber and often have side chambers. Many are 4,500 years old and show a sophisticated knowlwdge of construction, design, and astronomy. They are often decorated with geometrical motifs, spirals, concentric circles, triangles, zigzags, and the human face and of course the sun. Their meaning has not yet been deciphered but presumably they are connected with the religion of the people who built them. Passage graves often occur in-groups and those found in the Boyne Valley are superb: Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth Newgrange is a vast earthen mound penetrated by a long narrow passage, a ditch surrounds the tumulus with a number of the original pillar stones in place. A kerb of 97 huge stones (many with spiral motifs) supports a dry wall. The threshold stone is carved with a triple spiral, circles and diamonds about whose meaning we can only speculate. Fourknocks is a Passage Chamber Tomb built about 4000 years ago. It is located about 12 miles from the Boyne Valley Monuments in the parish of Ardcath on the Meath/Dublin border. The name Fourknocks is from the Irish Fuair Cnocs which means The Cold Hills

Passage at Newgrange 1986

The passageway is narrow and low and the central chamber artificially lit. However, on one day of the year, the Winter Solstice (21 December), a shaft of light enters the passage at dawn and for a few minutes strikes the centre of the floor illuminating the chamber. It is by all accounts an extraordinary experience.

Fourknocks under snow December 2000

Photograph with permission of  Michael Fox at http://www.knowth.com/fourknocksnow.htm