What Others Say
Rathbeag burial barrow
Cruachan is the sacred heart of Connacht. The principal site, the Mound or Rath of Cruachan, sits in a wide fertile plain which is dotted with some 60 raths, barrows, standing stones, cairns and enclosures, the monuments of a ritual landscape which has been in use for thousands of years.
Its mythology is layered through time and, like the sites themselves, the earlier layers are more elusive and harder to find. However, these few early mythic fragments lend a colour and character to the landscape here which you can still experience, if you are lucky.
(Extract from Sacred Ireland by Cary Meehan Gothic Publications 2004)
Rathcroghan (Rath Cruachan) is often referred to as both a royal settlement and a sacred burial place; it is one of several major royal sites in ancient Ireland, such as Tara (Temair), Co Meath, Knockaulin (Dun Ailinne), Co Kildare, and Navan Fort (Emain Macha), near Armagh, that are frequently mentioned in early literature.
While these sites had a special importance in early historic times, and in some cases bore an extraordinary weight of myth and legend, we now know that they are older archaeological assemblages of impressive complexity and size.
(Extract from Rathcroghan. Archaeological and geophysical survey in a ritual landscape by John Waddell, Joseph Fenwick and Kevin Barton, Wordwell Books 2009).
Wow !!!
(The common reaction from many visitors experiencing Rathcroghan for the first time, especially the cave).