Product Description
The great prehistoric chambered tomb of New Grange lies in the bend of the Boyne, north of Dublin and west of Drogheda. It is one of a group of prehistoric tombs forming one of the great cemeteries of ancient Europe. Until the end of the seventeenth century it was a huge grass-covered mound and then the chamber tomb was found. Edward Lhwyd, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, was travelling in Ireland at the time and wrote in a letter dated 15 December 1699, The most remarkable curiosity we saw by the way was a stately Mount at a place called New Grange near Drogheda; having a number of huge stones pitch d on end round about it, and a single one on the top. The gentleman of the village (one Mr. Charles Campbell) observing that under the green turf this mount was wholly composed of stones, and having occasion for some, employ d his servants to carry off a considerable parcel of them; till they came at last to a very broad flat stone, rudely carved, and placed edgewise at the bottom of the mount. This they discovered to be the door of a cave, which had a long entry leading to it. Thus was discovered one of the finest megalithic monuments in the world, and one of the earliest and most remarkable examples of early architecture in western Europe.
Originally published in a much shorter version in 1912, this is a completely expanded and updated reprinted edition , 1977, preface by Glyn Daniel, reissued by Dolphin Press with full details of the excavations on the site in the 1970's .