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On the Coolera Peninsula to the west of Sligo, Ireland. There are 30 surviving tombs
Making Carrowmore one of the largest clusters of megalithic tombs in Ireland. And, one of the ‘big four’ along with Carrowkeel, Loughcrew and Brú na Bóinne. (1)

It is located near Sligo town in County Sligo, on the west coast of Ireland

The complex is about one kilometre north–south and 600 metres east–west
Most of the sites are “satellite tombs” which surround the largest monument, placed on the high point of the plateau. This now restored cairn is called Listoghil.

Many of the tombs are circles, or, with a central dolmen-like chamber, surrounded by a circle of standing stones
These are simpler, and smaller than the later passage tombs found at places like Newgrange.

The largest and most central tomb, Listoghil (tomb 51), is a classic passage tomb with a stone cairn, a long passage, and a corbelled chamber
It was constructed slightly later than the surrounding dolmen circles, (around 3500 BCE). And, is aligned to the rising sun at Samhain (early November).

Tombs generally contain cremated human remains, often placed in small stone basins or on the chamber floors
Pottery, stone tools, and personal ornaments were found as grave goods.

Quartz pebbles, and slabs were also commonly found in the tombs

The cemetery sits in a natural amphitheater between Knocknarea Mountain (with Queen Maeve’s Cairn); and, Lough Gill. Part of a larger ritual and symbolic landscape

Unlike other passage tombs, most Carrowmore tombs never had large cairns
It may have been a different phase of neolithic architecture, or intentionally visibil burial chambers.

Carrowmore is an early Neolithic cemetery complex featuring small dolmen circles and a central passage tomb, reflecting some of the earliest ritual and burial practices in Ireland. It offers invaluable insight into the development of megalithic tomb-building, cosmology, and ancestral veneration in prehistoric Ireland. And, of course, neolithic architecture.

Cite: (1) Meehan, Cary (2004). Sacred Ireland. Somerset: Gothic Image Publications. p. 675. ISBN 0906362 43 1

Bibliography: Bergh, Stefan and Hensey, Robert (2013) Unpicking the chronology of Carrowmore in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 32 (4) pp 343–366 doi:10.1111/ojoa.12019 (https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fojoa.12019)

Burenhult Göran, (2005) Carrowmore: Tombs for Hunters British Archaeology Issue 82. http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba82/feat2.shtml Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201411290

Carrowmore.com (http://www.carrowmore.com) – detailed information on the Carrowmore sitesCarrowmore.com (http://www.carrowmore.com) – detailed information on the Carrowmore