Cairn T

Also known as:
Belrath, Chair Cairn, Ollamh Fodhla's Tomb and The Hag's Chair
Nearest town:
Oldcastle (4km WNW)
OS reference:
N586775
OS sheet:
42
Latitude:
53° 44' 37.72 N
Longitude:
7° 6' 42.21 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by GLADMAN

Bearing in mind the aura within the tomb I’m surprised I got any image on film at all, to be honest....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jul 18, 2010
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

Looking from the rear of the right hand recess across the main chamber into the left hand recess. The passage enters from the left of this photo.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2008
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Sep 1, 2008
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

Decorated passage orthostats, left hand side

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2008
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Aug 31, 2008
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by fitzcoraldo

A woodcut from
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries, Their Ages and Uses
By James Fergusson
Pub 1872

Image credit: J. Fergusson
fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Oct 26, 2007
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

Cairn T right hand recess and decorated chamber orthostat

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2007
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Jul 8, 2007
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

Concentric circles from the right hand side of the passage

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Dec 27, 2006
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

The ‘Hags Chair’. Under all that graffiti there’s some great but very weathered rock art, some concentric circles and a possible spiral are visible as well as a huge amount of tiny cup marks and pecked patterns. See: carrowkeel.com/sites/loughcrew/loughcrew1.html for a guide to the carvings, transcribed in potatoshop.

The full size image shows up a lot more.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Nov 26, 2006
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

On the eve of the Equinox, 22/9/06, sunlight streams down the passageway at dawn to light up the backstone of the chamber.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2006
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Sep 22, 2006
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by ryaner

Some of the keb-stones of cairn T are massive. This one, on it’s western flank, has fissured under the pressure of time.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jul 7, 2006
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by ryaner

The Hag’s chair with decidedly non-hag Irene

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jul 7, 2006
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by ryaner

Detail of the roofstone of the back recess in Cairn T, showing the prominent ‘Large nested arcs’.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jul 7, 2006
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

This might need an explanation as to what you are looking at! The photo was taken from the passage, the two green stones at the side are part of the passage, the stone at the bottom is the sill stone into the chamber. Between these stones is the central chamber with the rear chamber and ‘equinox stone’ dead ahead. The corbelling of the roof is also visible and the light inside the chamber is natural light from the entrance and the grid in the roof (its a 30 second exposure). There’s a bit of flash on the passage stones on each side to make up for me blocking the light coming in.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Mar 20, 2006
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

The Autumn equinox illumination of the rear chamber and the ‘equinox stone’ in particular, taken at sunrise on 20th September 2005.

Image credit: Ken Williams - [email protected]
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Sep 20, 2005
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

There were quite a few people here today so some volunteers were comandeered to block the strong daylight coming in through the entrance which washed out previous photos.

Image credit: Ken Williams
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Jun 7, 2005
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by greywether

Cairn T. Passage. First stone on left as you enter. Ref L1 (see Miscellaneous for meaning of this).

greywether
greywether Dec 22, 2003
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by greywether

Cairn T. Passage, looking out. Fifth stone on left as you enter. Spiral with 5 turns. Ref L5.

greywether
greywether Dec 22, 2003
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by greywether

Cairn T, W cell, backstone. The best-known Loughcrew decorated stone here shown in the context of its cell and sill stone. The light from the rising sun on the equinoxes illuminates this stone. Ref 14 (C8).

greywether
greywether Dec 22, 2003
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by greywether

Cairn T, W cell, right hand side stone. This is a view looking down from the top of the stone. Ref 15 (C9)

greywether
greywether Dec 22, 2003
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by greywether

Cairn T. N cell. Note the impressive sill stone. This is the only cell which does not have art on the back stone but two of the side stones are decorated – see previous image for one of them. Art can also be seen on the stone on the right – see next image.

greywether
greywether Dec 22, 2003
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by Holy McGrail

The backstone of the entrance-facing chamber of Cairn T in natural light.
(The carvings have been chalked in).
13/04/02ce.

Holy McGrail
Holy McGrail Apr 18, 2002
Image of Cairn T (Passage Grave) by IronMan

Cairn T. The beautiful carvings of the back stone can just about be made out.

IronMan
IronMan Apr 18, 2002

Articles

Folklore

Cairn T
Passage Grave
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Nov 29, 2006

[This] was told me in the summer of 1894: I was in Meath and went to see the remarkable chambered cairns on the hill known as Sliabh na Caillighe, ‘the Hag’s Mountain,’ near Oldcastle and Lough Crew. I had as my guide a young shepherd whom I picked up on the way. He knew all about the hag after whom the hill was called except her name: she was, he said, a giantess, and so she brought there, in three apronfuls, the stones forming the three principal cairns. As to the cairn on the hill point known as Belrath, that is called the Chair Cairn from a big stone placed there by the hag to serve as her seat when she wished to have a quiet look on the country round. But usually she was to be seen riding on a wonderful pony she had: that creature was so nimble and strong that it used to take the hag at a leap from one hill-top to another. However, the end of it all was that the hag rode so hard that the pony fell down, and that both horse and rider were killed.

From Celtic Folklore
Welsh And Manx
by John Rhys
[1901]

online at sacred-texts.com/neu/cfwm/cf200.htm

Topics

The wonderful light of Spring Equinox at Cairn T 12
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam
Mar 2007

Sites within 20km of Cairn T

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