Golden Dreams

Knowth is just 1km from Newgrange but is even larger — a great mound 85 metres across, with 18 smaller satellite tombs around it. Around the base are 124 kerbstones, 90 of them carved with spirals, lozenges, zigzags and crescents. It is the largest collection of megalithic art in all of Western Europe. 🌀

Unlike Newgrange’s single solstice passage, Knowth has two: an eastern passage aligned to sunrise at the equinox (around March 21st and September 21st) and a western passage aligned to sunset at the equinox. Professor George Eogan’s excavations 1962-2000 revealed this — public domain via OPW reports — showing how the builders used the mound as a precise solar calendar.

The art is not decoration. Kerbstone K52 at Knowth has what archaeologists believe is the oldest depiction of the moon in history — 29 crescents counting a lunar month. Other stones show sundials, maps of the Boyne, and the famous triple spirals. Inside, cremated remains and grave goods of polished stone axes from as far away as Wales were found, proving these Neolithic farmers traded across seas 5,200 years ago.

From the top of Knowth you can see Newgrange, Dowth, Tara and the entire Boyne Valley — the sacred landscape they chose to build in.