Knockmany passage tomb, or Anya's Cove, is an ancient burial monument on the summit of Knockmany Hill, near the village of
Augher
Augher (from meaning "edge/border") is a small village in south County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It lies just 6 miles to the border with County Monaghan and is 16 miles south of Dungannon. It is situated in the historic barony of Clogher and ...
in
County Tyrone
County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh.
Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
. It is the remains of a
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
passage tomb
Passage, The Passage or Le Passage may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Films
* Passage (2008 film), ''Passage'' (2008 film), a documentary about Arctic explorers
* Passage (2009 film), ''Passage'' (2009 film), a short movie about three sisters
* ...
and its stones are decorated with rare
megalithic art
Megalithic art refers to art either painted or carved onto megaliths in prehistoric Europe and found on the structural elements, like the kerbstones, orthostats, or capstones of megalithic tombs, but recent investigations have included decorati ...
. They are protected by a concrete chamber and mound, built in 1959 by the then
Ministry of Finance for Northern Ireland, roughly resembling the mound that would have originally covered it. The stones can be viewed through the entrance gates.
It is a
monument in state care.
Description
The monument is a
passage tomb
Passage, The Passage or Le Passage may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Films
* Passage (2008 film), ''Passage'' (2008 film), a documentary about Arctic explorers
* Passage (2009 film), ''Passage'' (2009 film), a short movie about three sisters
* ...
built during the
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
, around 3000 BC. The chamber was originally covered with a stone cairn and earth. The 13 sandstone
orthostats
This article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic (Stone Age) structures.
Forecourt
In archaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. Forecourts ...
remain: these are of height , and three of them show carved decorations including concentric circles, spirals and zigzags. They are similar to the decorated stones of the tombs at
Loughcrew
Loughcrew or Lough Crew () is an area of historical importance near Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland. It is home to a group of ancient tombs from the 4th millennium BC, some decorated with rare megalithic art, which sit on top of a range of hi ...
and
Newgrange
Newgrange () is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, placed on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, west of the town of Drogheda. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3100 BC, makin ...
.
Legends
Knockmany comes . Bﾃ｡ine (meaning 'whiteness') was a supernatural being, probably a goddess, who became conflated with the more famous goddess ﾃ（ne
ﾃ（ne () is an Irish goddess of summer, wealth, and sovereignty. She is associated with midsummer and the sun,MacKillop, James (1998) ''Dictionary of Celtic Mythology'' Oxford: Oxford University Press pp.10, 16, 128 and is sometimes represent ...
.Place Names NI
/ref> According to legend, Queen Bﾃ｡ine was wife of the 1st-century King Tﾃｺathal Techtmar
Tﾃｺathal Techtmar (; 'the legitimate'), son of Fﾃｭachu Finnolach, was a High King of Ireland, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition. He is said to be the ancestor of the Uﾃｭ Nﾃｩill and Connachta dynasties through his grand ...
and was buried here, in the tomb of the earlier Queen ﾃ（ne.[
In Irish folklore, the location was the home of ]Fionn mac Cumhaill
Fionn mac Cumhaill, often anglicised Finn McCool or MacCool, is a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish and Manx folklore. He is the leader of the ''Fianna'' bands of young roving hunter-warriors, as well as being a seer a ...
(Finn McCool) and his wife Oonagh.[
]
See also
* Irish megalithic tombs
Megalithic monuments in Ireland typically represent one of several types of megalithic tombs: court cairns, passage tombs, portal tombs and wedge tombs. The remains of over 1,000 such megalithic tombs have been recorded around Ireland.
Types Co ...
* List of megalithic monuments in Ireland
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
{{reflist
Buildings and structures completed in the 4th millennium BC
Buildings and structures completed in the 3rd millennium BC
Archaeological sites in County Tyrone
Megalithic monuments in Northern Ireland
Tombs in the United Kingdom