Knowth Kerbstone K75

Kerbstone K75 is one of the 127 kerbstones numbered in Professor George Eogan's record of the Knowth monument. It is located on the north-western side of the great passage tomb mound.

The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath

Description of Kerbstone 75

A distinguishing feature of the carving on this stone is the presence of broad, ribbon-like lines, which is picked on many of the stone's arrises; these lines continue over onto the flat surfaces to form motifs. The picking runs along the lower ridge of the stone, bifurcating at the left end, with one part running upwards to form part of a double spiral. To the right, it runs up to form a hook, then to another L-shaped hook, which connects with a hook running along a higher ridge.

To the right of the stone, picking along a ridge curves to the right and left and encloses a series of seven more finely picked and more weathered arcs opening to the upper left. In the upper part of the stone, there is another longer hook motif, again partly picked along a ridge, and above this are a series of short, angular designs; a square; a U-motif that opens upwards and encloses two gapped circles opening down; and a range of other small arcs and lines. The picking is done with medium-to-large, rounded points but towards the right-hand end in particular a chisel was used. In some places the pickmarks merge to form a continuous line.

Excavations at Knowth Volume 7: The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath

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Knowth Stone Age passage tomb

Among the surviving kerbstones at Knowth, K75 contributes to the largest open-air gallery of Neolithic art in western Europe. The eastern passage runs for about forty metres, the longest known megalithic passage in western Europe. It opens eastward into a cruciform chamber with three recesses and a corbelled stone roof of the kind also seen at Newgrange (eastern tomb at Knowth).

Twin passages at Knowth face broadly east and west. Older ideas that they targeted equinox sunrises and sunsets have given way to wider interpretations that allow both solar and lunar observation, and perhaps calendrical counting, among the motives of the builders.

The passage tombs of the Boyne were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth together represent one of the richest prehistoric landscapes in Europe, valued for their age, scale and megalithic art.

The central cairn is accompanied by nineteen satellite mounds. Knowth holds roughly a quarter of all recorded megalithic art in western Europe, with two major passages and decades of scientific excavation behind the story told today.