One of Kilkenny’s most important archaeological monuments is the Neolithic passage-tomb at Knockroe. The site was excavated in the 1990s by Dr. Muiris O Sullivan of UCD who discovered 30 decorated stones, and like Newgrange in the Boyne Valley, the face of the cairn flanking the eastern tomb was decorated with a frieze of quartz. Also, like Newgrange, the roof-box in the western tomb allows the rays of the sun to pass along the upward-sloping passage at the Winter Solstice (21st December), when it illuminates a tall red-sandstone portal. Unlike Newgrange however these rays pass through the roofbox at sunset rather than sunrise.
The site is extremely difficult to photograph properly but a new series of wonderful photos of its art and the sun entering the chamber at the evening of the winter Solstice are now available here!
The Discovery Programme have also recently completed this laser scan survey of the monument.
