Knowth is a Neolithic passage tomb in the Boyne Valley and part of the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its great mound was originally edged by 127 kerbstones, many carved with spirals, circles, zigzags, and other abstract motifs. This page looks at Kerbstone K92, one of Knowth's decorated kerbstones.
Knowth Kerbstone K92.
The stone is greywacke, a type of sandstone composed of tightly cemented mineral grains and rock fragments. Much of the surface has been weathered, with the carving restricted to the smoother upper right corner. The design consists of a penannular circle with an outer arc and two nearby short lines, all worked with a medium sized, rounded point.
K92 sits on the northwestern side of the mound. Much of the face has worn smooth over five millennia, so the surviving panel in the upper right corner is easy to miss unless you know where to look. A penannular circle is a ring that does not quite close, a common motif in Boyne Valley art.
The eastern passage at Knowth runs for about forty meters, the longest known megalithic passage in western Europe. Later Iron Age people built a ring-fort beside the mound, reusing a site that already carried great prestige in the landscape.
The definitive guide to Knowth's carved stones is Excavations at Knowth Volume 7: The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath, edited by Professor George Eogan and Dr Elizabeth Shee Twohig and published as part of the Excavations at Knowth series. It is the official record of megalithic art from decades of excavation at Brú na Bóinne.
The description of Kerbstone K92 explains how carving survives only on the smoother upper right corner, where a penannular circle and short lines remain visible despite heavy weathering elsewhere on the face.
Knowth was built around 3200 to 2900 BC, and this volume covers one of the site's most remarkable features: its carved stones. All 390 decorated kerbstones, passage stones and chamber stones are catalogued with written descriptions, line drawings and photographs. Six main art styles are identified and explained, along with the motifs and carving techniques the Neolithic builders used.
Knowth accounts for about 46 percent of all passage-tomb art in Ireland and roughly a third of the megalithic art recorded in Europe. The book also places Knowth in a wider context, comparing its carvings with those at other Irish tombs, sites in western and northern Britain, and earlier megalithic art across Atlantic Europe. If you have walked the kerb at Knowth and want to understand what you saw, this is the reference to keep.
Purchase from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. A free digital edition is available from the Digital Repository of Ireland.
Ideal for a first visit to the Boyne Valley, this private tour explores the UNESCO World Heritage landscape of Brú na Bóinne. Visit Newgrange and Knowth with the official site guides, then discover places associated with Ireland's ancient kings, mythology, and Saint Patrick. The day also includes the Hill of Slane and the Hill of Tara.
Price €675 for up to six guests, plus booking fees.
We went on two tours with Boyne Valley Tours: the Ancient Boyne Valley Guided tour and the Wicklow tour. Michael is a great tour guide. He is knowledgeable and makes Ireland come alive. Read the full TripAdvisor review