Seefin Passage Tomb is an empty

passage grave A passage grave or passage tomb consists of one or more burial chambers covered in earth or with stone, and having a narrow access passage made of large stones. These structures usually date from the Neolithic Age, and are found largely in Wester ...

and

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

located atop Seefin Hill,

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Location

Seefin Passage Tomb is located atop Seefin in the

Wicklow Mountains The Wicklow Mountains (, archaic: '' Cualu'') form the largest continuous upland area in the Republic of Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into the counties of Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. Wh ...

, just south of Kilbride Army Camp. Nearby Seefingan and Seahan mountains also have cairns atop them.

History

The tomb was built circa 3300 BC, during Ireland's Neolithic. It was excavated by

R. A. Stewart Macalister Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister (8 July 1870 – 26 April 1950) was an Irish archaeologist. Biography Macalister was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Alexander Macalister, then Professor of Zoology, University of Dublin. His father wa ...

in 1931, but no artefacts or human remains were found, suggesting that no-one was ever buried there, or that the remains were later removed.

Description

The tomb is a stone cairn, in diameter and high. There are large kerb stones around the base of the tomb and the tomb has a passageway long which opens into a chamber with five compartments. There are some carved decorations in

lozenge Lozenge or losange may refer to: *Lozenge (shape), a type of rhombus *Throat lozenge, a tablet intended to be dissolved slowly in the mouth to suppress throat ailments *Lozenge (heraldry), a diamond-shaped object that can be placed on the field of ...

shape, carved lines and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

Photo gallery

File:Early Christian cross Seefin.jpg, Carved cross inside Seefin tomb File:Seefin entrance-HDR.jpg, Entrance doorway File:Seefin chamber.jpg, View from chamber looking outward File:Seefin_From_above_Bullseye_1.png, View from above

References

{{Reflist National Monuments in County Wicklow Archaeological sites in County Wicklow Tombs in the Republic of Ireland