Carrowkeel Tombs
by Coolbock N.S.
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Off we went on our school bus to the Carrowkeel Passage Tombs. We climbed up the hill and there in front of us was the first tomb. Mrs Enright took a couple of children in to the chamber in turn.

When I got in to the chamber there was soap, leaves and candles on what looked like a shelf. We could see that the burial chambers were laid out in a kind of cross shape. It was amazing how dry the chamber was after 5000 years.

We learned about how the Carrowkeel tombs were excavated in 1911. The burial chambers contained cremated bone, pins, flints, pottery and stone beads. The tomb builders went to a lot of trouble to bury their chieftains or whoever was buried in the tombs.

The view from the top of the mountain was beautiful and we could see that there were more than twenty tombs on the hills all around us.


The second tomb was so small you nearly had to crawl to get in. It was dark in the tomb so we lit a candle to see the inside of the chambers. There seems to be some designs on the walls but these might not be so old. That tomb was very interesting.

At the third tomb the chamber had collapsed but we could see the passage way. We couldn’t get in, but we sketched it. I liked this school trip because we got to the see the tombs and we got to sketch the tombs as well. It was a very good and interesting school trip.

We went to Carrowkeel because we are doing a Heritage Project and the Stone Age Tombs are an important part of our Heritage.

Our Teacher also told us that we can see the sun shining into the tombs around the days of the 21st of June.