Last Stop: Carrowkeel Megalithic Tombs
In looking through photos from the trip, I realized I needed to make one more post. At the end of our journey, we stopped overnight in Boyle to break up the five-hour return to Dublin. We hadn’t planned much for this stop, but by the time we arrived, we knew we needed to get out and walk. We unloaded our stuff and immediately headed out again to visit the nearby Carrowkeel megalithic complex. This ancient, somewhat remote site consists of 21 passage tombs—one of four major passage tomb cemeteries in Ireland. Though it’s officially recognized as a national monument, Carrowkeel is poorly preserved and rarely visited.
We quickly understood why the site isn’t popular with tourists—it’s about a 40-minute hike, mostly uphill, to reach the tombs. For us, this was perfect. One stretch of the path is described in two different guides as “strenuous,” but it offered much steadier footing than some of our earlier hikes. The 2.3 km trail begins in a quiet valley in the Bricklieve Mountains, following a dirt lane through grazing farmland.
The road narrows onto a rough farm track with tremendous views of the valley below, then veers off onto a double-wide sheep path that climbs a gentle hill.
After ascending the rise, we spotted the first tomb—one of the largest in the complex. Though the entrances are all blocked, the passages can be partially viewed with a flashlight. These tombs were built over 7,000 years ago—predating the pyramids of ancient Egypt, the wheel, and Newgrange. Excavated in the 1920s, they vary in size but generally follow a cruciform layout. Each is covered with a massive cairn of stones, a clear testament to the planning and effort involved in their construction.
Soon after we arrived, we were treated to a full rainbow arcing across the sky.
From this peak, there’s a sweeping view of the checkered pastures far below.
With limited time, we visited just a few of the sacred structures before turning back and weaving through the sheep once more to return to the car park.
Along the way, we passed several other enchanting viewpoints—each one reinforcing the sense that the people who built this culturally and spiritually significant site may have chosen it for its magical qualities.
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