Figure L; Newgrange passage grave after exeavaiion and restoration by the late Prof. Miehael J. O'Kelly,

Astronomical Traditionsof Ancient lreland and Britain

by Ronald Hicks

Introduction

While there is still debate about suehthings as the degree of preeision possible intheir use, it is now generally aeknowledged thatone funetion of Stonehenge and the many otherstone rings in Great Britain and Ireland was toserve as giant sundials, of a sort, marking theseasons rather than hours (e.g., Thom 1967).Thus the Neolithie and Early Bronze Age peo-ples of the region were clearly interested inastronomy. From Caesarts eomments (Se

B. C. : Book VI), it appears that the Iron Agedruids of a later period were as well; he elaimsthey spent as mueh time diseussing astronomyas they did theology. Thus there appears tohave been a eontinuity of interests in theheavens from at least lrTeolithic times into theearly historie period.

This being so, we might expeet this in-terest to be refleeted in the early literature ofthe region, in plaee nam€s, in topographieallegends, in mythology, and even in explieitlyastronomieal fo1klore. However, I ean f ind no

evidence that anyone has atternpted a sys-tematie study of this problem.

What I propose to do, therefore, is topoint out a few of the traditions with moreobvious astronomieal implieations and to suggestsome other areas that might prove to haveastronomieal interest or to be worthy of studyby a folklorist and field arehaeologist or arehae-oastronomer working together.

The Early Sources and the Calendar

The possession of a ealendar, either solaror lunar, iffiplies astronomical knowledge.Therefore traditions having to do with theealendar, Seasonal festivals, and the tike are onegood starting point in our seareh for etrues toaneient astrpnomieal praetiees.

Stonehenge , &ceording to Geoffrey ofMonmouth (e. 11" 3 9), was ereeted by Merlin toeommemorate a massaere earried out on MayDay by Hengist the Jute. In fact Stonehengewas built over two millennia before Hengist's

7O ARCHAEOASTROI{OMY

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Newgrartge: Above: Plan of the tornb and sectional elevationof the east side of the passage and ehamber before exeavation.Eelow: A general plan of Newgrange. (Figures 4 and 3,respeetively, from Newgrange by Miehael J. O'KeIly, Thamesrrd Hudson, 1982),

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time, but the May Day referenee is itself veryinteresting. This, one of the old "eross-quarterdays,'t 'was traditionally the beginning of sum-mer and was ealled Beltaine in lreland. Thisand the other Celtic eross-quarter days --Imbo1e or Oimelg on 1 February, Lnghnasa on 1

August, and Samhain on L November wouldeertainly not have fallen so neatly at thebeginnings of the months in pre-Christian times.From the astronom ical point of view, theyappear to have marked the ehronologieal mid-points between the solstiees and equinoxes,which fall on 5 February, 6 May, I August, and7 November. (The alternative midpoints, thedays when the aetual rising pdsition of the sunis midway usually 19 February, 2L April , 23August, and 22 Oetober do not seem to havebeen cf signifieanee). Aeeording to Sir NormanLoekyer (t909), Boyle Somerville (t S0g), andAlexander Thom (t967), these eross-quarterdates are indieated by alignments at a numberof stone eireLes, including Stonehenge. Evenmore interestingly, an astronomieal sightlinethat works for sunrise on Beltaine also worksfor sunrise at Lr.ighnasa. And if used in reverse(assuming the horizon is level), it works as wellfor sunset near the other two eross-quarterdays. There is one eomplicating faetor here,however, in that some evidenee suggests that

Yolume VIII(l-4) 1985 7 |

Figure 2: Midwinter sunrise viewed from the interior ofNewgrange. Photo by Mike Bunn.

the aetual dates of the aneient seesonal fest-ivals may have been set not on the basis of thesolar date alone but rather on that of arelationship between a solar date and a lunarphase, jr-rst as we now determine the date ofEaster.

That aneient sourees like Geof frey ofMonmouth ean be fruitful plaees to look forastronomical traditions is illustrated even morevividly by one aeeount in the Irish dindshenehastales, a eolleetion of plaee-name Impiled between the tenth and twelfth eenturies(Stokes 1894-1895, Gwynn 1903-1935). A nltm-ber of these stories diseuss plaees in theNeolithic passage grave eemetery thirty milesnorth of Dublin in the Bend of the Boyne, orBlrgh na_B{inne. The monuments here ineludednot onlyEnumber of passage graves (tne majorexamples of which were more likely meantprimarily as temples or shrines than as tomb,-s)

but also a variety of standing stones and hengeenelosures (tfre latter deriving their name fromthe earthen bank that formed the first phase ofeonstruetion at Stonehenge). The three primarymonuments in the eomplex are the passagegraves of Knowth, Dowth, and Newgrange. InDowth Townland there also stands an impressivehenge enelosure whose axis, and entranees,eomespond to the summer solstiee sunrise/winter solstiee sunset line. ttDowth[ is aeorruption of Dubad, 'darkness,' and the legendexplaining tfils narne (Gwynn L924:27L*2?3)elaims that it derives from a time when theeattle of Ireland were dying of a disease. Theloea1 king, Bressal , ealled together all the menof Ireland to build a monument to heaven, Theassembled men would agree to work only oneday, so the king's sister, a druidess, halted thesun in the sky so the work eould be f inished.Unfortunately, while the men worked, the kingand his sister ehose to steal away and eom mitineest, bringing darkness baek upon the land.This appears to be a elear example of a solstieelegeod, or at least a legend meant to explainwhy the almost endless days of summer arereplaeed by the darkness of winter.

Grange

As we shall see a bit later, the entireBrugh na _ B5inne eomplex appears to haveastronomieal implieations. It may also provideus with a elue to some plaee names. of interest.

l.Iewgrange itself is not mentioned in thedindshenehas, &t least not under that name. Itappears to be the Brugh, the palaee on theBoyne, home of Oengus, son of the Dagda, theehief of the gods. Oengus has been interpretedas being the trrish sun god, and he is said to haveaequired the Brugh through eonquest of Danu,ealled the mother of the gods. The nameNewgrange has been taken to mean there wasonee a new granary nearby, eonneeted with themonastery that owned the land. An alternativeexplanation, however, is that it is an angli-eization of An tlamh Gr6ine, 'the eave of the.,

sun o ' (0 Rio 19 64: 1 6). Promp-ted by a loeal legend, the exeavator, MichaelO'Kel1y, positioned himself in the ehamber thatlies at the end of a seventy-foot passage underthe mound and diseovered that at the wintersolstiee Newgrange is indeed the eave of thesun , for the rising sun shines down the passageand illuminates the ehamber at its end (C.O'Kelly L971:93-94). To me, this strongl5rsuggests that it was built in an attempt to

72 ARCHAEOASTROI.{OMY

?he Dowth Hall henge two miles east of Newgrange,with a midsummer sunrise/midwinter sunset axis.Photo by permission of the Cambridge UniversityCollection, eopyright reserved.

symbolize the midwinter sun impregnating theearth so that it would again bring forth food forthe people. (A sim ilar ef feet ean be observedat another major passage grave, Maes Howe inthe Orkneys). There is a rather eomplex legendset at Brugh na BSinne that may have somerelevanee to this. In it, the Dagda, chief of thegods and apparently responsible for weather andthe harrrest, sends away Elcmar, Lord of theBrugh, easting spells Lrpon him so that he thinksnine months i.e., three seasons are but asingle day. While Eiernar is gone, the Dagdamates with his wife (r,ariously referred to asEithne,tgrain,tor B6and,twhite eow,talso thename of the goddess of the River Boyne) whoeventually gives birth to Oengus, whom weeneountered earlier. By this time you are pro-bably beginning to get some idea cf the dif-fieulties inherent in making any sense at all ofIrish mythology, but it is hard to resist thesuspieion that the agrieultural eye1e, and thusthe year, the seasonS, and astronomy are inti-mately involved in it.

ttGrangett as a plaee name seems to beassoeiated with aneient Irish saered sites withunusual frequeney, &s is Gr6ine. A seeondexample is the Grange stone-ffile a few milessouth of Limeriek. And perhaps more interest-ingly, we have Grange Hill in Co. Kildare. Ifone stands in the eenter of a small henge on anarea of open range nearby ealled the Curragh,one ean wateh the midsum mer sun setting onthe south slope of this hill. On that . slope wealso have the '?Chair of Kildare ," which bringsus to another bit of tradition with possibleastronom ieal ties.

Figure

The River Boyne as itnamed for the goddess

appears a few milesBoand, 'white eow,'

to the west of themother of Oengus.

Newgrange passage grave eomplex. The Boyne isShe has no other apparent astronom ical eonneetions.

Figure

Yolume VIII(I-4) 1985 73

Figure 5: Midsummer sunset behind Grange Hill and the chair of Kildare, as seen from site 4, a henge, on the curragh, co.Kildare.

;-Figure 6: The Chair of Kildare on Grange HiII.

74 ARCHAEOASTROI{OUY

?: The Hegrs Chair at Cairn T on Slieve na Calliagh in the Loughere,w passage graveFigure 7: The Hag's Chetr at Ualrn 'I' on Dlleve na uanuagn

Chairs

T'he Chair of K ildare is in faet a sm a}ltumulus on the shoulder of the hill that oneeserved as the. inauguration plaee f or the loealkings, but on a number of the hilltops assoeiatedwith Lughnasa cel€jbrations (MacNeill 196 2:L00,153) there are stone ehairs, some natural andothers apparently artificially cut. The roekehairs are usually supposed to have been visitedonly on eertain days of the,year, Lltghnasa andthe vernal equinox being mentioned. It is saidthat Some of them were onee worshipped, andeven in reeent times sitting in them wasbelieved tc bring luek, fertility, of health.Given the apparent signifieanee of the loeationof the Chair of Kildaf€, it's worth investigatingwhether there are saered sites in the vieinity ofthe roek ehairs from which solar or lunarsettings wottld appear to oeeur in the hills nearthem, '

Baleful Lights

There are a number of motifs in Irishfolklore that may have astronomieal implica-tions. One of these is the "baleful light" thatcauses the death of anyone who looks upon it(usually by snee zing, for some euriotts reason)(MaeNeill 1962:400-4A2, 526-541). Versions of

the Loughere,w passage grave eomplex.

this taie are assoeiated in most instanees withroeks (on land and off the eoast), hills, and"mountains. In most eases the light appears atsunset and is set by a witetr, although a king, adruid, and Fionn's son Cisin are also blamed.The light, of lighter, frequently is ealled by thename Suicin or some variant thereof. Themeaning of this name is not elear in thisconte xt, though it ean m ean 'little ealf . '

It seems entirely possible that these leg-ends harken baek to a time when the roeks prpeaks were used as foresights to mark animportant setting of the sun or rnoon. The onlyease for which I ean of fer a more def initehypothesis is that of the HilI of S1ane, iust westof the Bend of Boyne in Co. Meath. The threemajor passage graves in the Bend of the Boyne

Newgranse , Knowth, and Dowth appear onthe basis of a survey I earried out in L977 to beso arranged that, from atop Newgrans€, Dowthmarks the rising point and Knowth the settingpoint of the rnoon at its northern minor stand-still. The north slope of the H ilI of Slane isdireetly in line with Knowth (whieh by the w&Y,

is said Gwynn 1913:4L-47 to derive its o1d

name, Cnogba 'the hill of Blii,' from a wife ofLugh, about whom wetll hear more in a mo-ment). The "baleful lightt' on the Hill of Slanethus rnay have been the rnoon when it set on the

Volume VIII(1-4) 1985 7 5

Figure 8: Knowth passage grave and the Hill of Slane as seenfrom atop New'$range.

Newgrange-Knowth alignment, and the deathassoeiated with it ma3, have been a saerifieeperforn'led at tha t tirne.

In most of the legends, St. Patrick ex-tinguishes the light, though in one instanee thisis aeeornplished by St, Brigit. MaeNeill haspointed out that this in some ways paralleis thepre-Christian legencl of Lugh putting out the eyeof Balor, his grandfather. There is some reasonto suspeet that Balorts t'eyet' refers to the sun.Another possible explanation is that "putting outthe I ight" . equates with stopping the ritual andsacrif iees, jr-rst as "banishing the serpent" fromIreland refers to halting the worship of theserpent godcless,

Fire on the Mountain T'iop

Another kind of light appears atop hills inthe legends that ereated by bonfires. i\{ost ofthese legends of mountaintop bonf ires on fes-

76 ARCHATOASTROI{OMY

tival days unquestionably refer to aetual fires.Exeavations at the Iron Age assembly site ofDrin Ailinne, for example, revealed evidenee ofperiodie nnassive bonfires (Waites Lg76). But afew of the stories carry a hint of somethingelse, just possibly the use of the hilltops asastronomieai foresights. The Spellick, nearAdavoyle, Co. Armagh, not only has a stoneehair attributed to the hag goddess CailleaehBhSara but also a legend of a woman beingburned atop the mountain at the end of a ehase"Aine, the goddess assoeiated with the harvestfestiroal (Lugnnasa) is said to have been burnerlatop another hill in uister by her father( MacNeill 196 2:55 B).

on the Dingle Peninsula , a fire is said tohave driven Fionn, one of the eharaeters in Irishmythology with astronom ieal overtones, baekagainst a pilIar stone atop l\{ount Brandon.

Embers

Another possibly astronom ieal motif eon-eerns the woman who earuies live embers in herapron ( MacXeill 196 2:240-2 4L, 27 3, 106, S? g-58 2). In at least two cases, this tale isessoeiated with Lughnasa sites, though in oneease the story involves the sister of a saint whois honored at the beginning of February. Analternative version attributes the feat to St.Brigit, who is also honored at the beginning ofFebruary.

In co. cork there are three sisters, Lasair,'flarn€,t Inghean Buide, tyellow-haired,t andLatiaran (ttre meaning of whose name is un-known). The sisters are assoeiated, respee-tively, with Imbole, Be1taine, and Lughnasa. trn

this ease Latiaran is the f ire-earrier andmakes her journey from her home to the forgefor the embers underground (MaeNeill 196 Z:Z?3).

could the apron full of embers perhaps bepart of a eonstellation representing the sister--say the Pleiades? In the late pre-Christianperiod the heliaeal rising of the Pleiades wouldhave oeeurred rrery near BeItaine. Simitrarly,there is a legend that the Irish serpent goddess,the Caorthannach, who also has Lughnasa as-soeiations, is eonfined to a lake buttther baekemerges every May Day morning" (MacNeill19 6 2:66 8). 2

Underground Passage

Supposed underground passages like thatassoeiated with Latiaran are frequently as-

soeiated with prehistorie saered sites, linkingthem with other nearby sites. At least one ofthe sites involved is usually a roek or on ahilltop. Could these tales refer to the under-ground passage of eelestial bodies, linking ob-servation points with horizon foresights? Thepossibility is eertainly worth eheeking.

Mythological Figures

The "sun-god" interpretation of mythologywent into deeline many years ago, yet therewere nonetheless solar and lunar deities inmyth. If we ean link particular mythologiealeharaeters with partieular sites having astron-omieal overtones, this may help to elarify boththe mythology and the implieations of theastronomy.

There are several figures in Irish myth-ology whose eharaeteristies or aetivities ean beinterpreted astronomieally. Generally, speakingthey are eharaeters often assoeiated with theseasonal festivals. The most obvious of these isthe Balor already mentioned, one of the trio of

mythologieal kings or gods (tne others beingNuada and Bres). Balor seems to be the deityafter whom Beltaine (tBeal's f ire') is named.He is thus the god of summers. In the legendshe is a god with a single deadly, baleful,petrifying, piercing, or burning eye. Bres maybe identical with the K ing Bressal who appearsin the solstiee Legend at Dowth.

Balor keeps eaptive his daughter Eithne('grain'), whose Son, it is foretold, wil]" even-tually kill his grandfather. That son, Lugh,eventually appears. Lugh is reputedly both a

eraftsman and a trickster. It is he who isresponsible for freeing the harvest for thepeople, thus giving his name to the harvestfestival, Lughnasa ('games of Lugh'). The mostimportant of the festival sites are frequentlynamed for women held captive. In any ease, thebrillianee of Lugh's faee is likened to that ofthe sun ( MacNeill 1962:5) and it is said that ared eolor used to be on him from sunset tomorning. Both those deseriptions suggest con-neetion with a eelestial body, perhaps Mars orthe eelipsed rnoon.

J.",i"j-l;4:1,

.!

Figure 9: Dfn Ailinne,Co. Kildare,. Photo by perm ission of

as it eppeared while the temple sites onthe Cambridge University Colleetion,

the summit were under exeavation by Bernard Wailes-eopyright reserved.

Volu me VIII(I -4) 1985 77

Another bright or fair eharaeter is thewarrior Fionn MaeCumhall. Some authoritiesfeel he is identieal with Lugh (o'Rahi[y 1g46:27L-281), and in various medieval sourees thereare indeed referenees to Fionnlugh. The Hill ofAllen in Co. K ildare is said to have been thehome of Fionn and his warrior band. It may ormay not be relevant that the Hill of Alten asviewed from a Curuagh henge (Raneenanairy)would serve to mark approximately an extremesetting azimuth of Venus. Fionn seems to havee more important role in the stories of Samhain,the winter festival, than in the others.

To turn to the female figures with possibleastronomieal eonneetions, I have already men-tioned them in other eonneetions Brigit, theCailleaeh Bh6ara, the Caorthannach, Aine, andBfii. Aine is at times equated with Eithne, butmost prom inently she is feared just before theharvest and in a number of legends seems to bea hag goddess assoeiated with famine. There isabundant reason to assume she is identieal withboth the Cailleaeh Bh6ara and the Caorthan-naeh. Her festival in some eases is linked to alunar phase, and the hag goddess in general isassoeiated with the moon,night, and death.Bfii's reputed burial in cnogba (rcnowth), whichmarks the setting moon from Newgrange, maybe relevant to this.

The name Aine apparently derives frompn, 'fiery, bright, glowing.? It earuies a seeondmeaning of 'swift. ' o'Rahilly ( t g 46:2 g0) hasargued that the derivation makes it elear thatAine was a sun goddess. I doubt that, but notthat she was represented in the heavens.

Recent Astronomical Lore

A quiek eheek of the index eards for theIrish Folklore Commission files now housed inuniversity colles€, Dub1in, indieates that as-tronomieal folklore is abundant. While I harrenot yet been able to examine that material, Ihave ' found one referenee to' reeent astro-nomieal lore in the arehaeologieal literature.This is in John Barber's diseussion of thereeumbent-stone eireles of Southwest Ireland, inwhieh he says

Many of the farmers I spoke to whilesurveying the eireles eould indicate fairlyaeeurately the setting-points of the sun atits limiting positions. several were con-seious of the moon's eyele and on thecork-Kerry border, south-west of Bally-vourn€v, the farmers living in the moun-

Figure 10: The Iron Age hilltop eashelthe sim ilarly designed St.eonverted by St. Patriek."

(stone fort) at theAngus's ehureh at

St. Angus appears

royal (i.e., saered) site ealled Grianan ofits foot, named for the "grandson ofto be a Christianized Oengus.

Aileaeh ('sun-palaee') andthe ehieftain, who was

78 ARCHAEOASTROI{OMY

tains know of a period which they eall theDuibhr€, rvhen the moon is so low in theffifr-at it does not rise above thesurrounding mountains for a period ofseveral weeks ( t g? 3:3 7 ).

Considerably more information would undottbt-edly be fortheoming if a serious attempt weremade to eolleet it.

Summary and Conclusions

There are, &s I hope I have shown, DU-merous hints in Irish and British tradition of apossible astronom ieal eonneetion. In earlyliterature from the region there are tales thatassoeiate stone eireles and henges with the oldeross-quarter days and the solstiees, some ofthose assoeiations being in the form of plaeenames. Similar eonneetions are found in reeenttales and names. In addition there are stonettehairs,t' sometirnes loeated in a position wherethe sun or moon eould be seen to set, that havesimilar assoeiations. iVlention of baleful lights

References

Barber, John1973 "The orientation of the reeumbent-stone cireles of

the south-west of lreland.t' Journal of the KerryArehaeologieal and Historieal Soeiety 5:26-39.

BurI, Aubrey1976 The Stone Cireles of the British Isles. Yale

Caesar, Gaius Julius58-53 The Gallie l{ars (Oe Bello Gallieo). Variousrc ns that of John

Warrington. Heritage Press, New York, 1955.)

Geoffrey of Monmouthc'113e 'iffiSeEasTiAn Evans, revised by Charles W. Dunn. E.P.

Dutton, New York, 1958.)

Gwynn, Edward1903- rrThe metrieal Dindshenehas.f' Royal Irish Aeademy1935 Todd Leeture Series 8-12. Hodges Figgis, Dublin.

Loekyer, Sir Norman1909 .

MaeNeill,1 962 The Festival of Luehn&sa. Oxford University Press,

xford.

at sunset eould also have sueh a eonneetion, BS

eould the frequentl3r mentioned em bers carriedby a female saint or deity and hilltop fires. Theunderground passages frequently attributed toprehistorie saered sites may sometimes refer toIron Age souterrains, but the ttundergroundrt

passage of eelestial bodies may also be a soureefor the idea. And f inally the solar and lunareonneetions of some Ce1tie deities eannot beentirely ruled out, especially when the5r areassoeiated with sites that from other evideneeseem to have astronomical implieations"

All of these areas, &s well as straight-forward astronomieal lore, need to be inves-tigated, preferably by folklorists and arehaeo-astronorners working together.

Notes

This paper " is a slight revision of one

delivered in a session on ethnoastronomli at the1980 annual meeting oi: the Ameriean FolkloreSoeiety in Pittsburgh.

6 R{ord6in, Sean P. and Glyn Daniel1964 New Grange and the _Bend of the Boyne. Thames

and Hudson, London.

Somerville, Boyle T.1909 ttNotes on a stone eirele in County Cork.tt Journal

i[,ffi_logu Historieal and Arehaeologieal Soeiety

Stokes, Whitley a

1894/95 "The Prose Tales in the Rennes Dindsenchas.rf

ffi5r8:ll;.r" L5:27 2-336, 418-484; 16:31-83, 135-

Thom, Alexander1967 . Oxford UniversitY

I{ailes, Bernard196? "Dfin Ailinne: An Interim Report, 1968-1972.r' In

Hillforts: Later Prehistorie Earthworks in Britain

London.

O'Kelly,1971

ClaireGuide to Newsrange. (zno ed.) John English,WExffii.

Eonald Hicks is s Professor in the Departrnent ofAnthropology and Direetor of the Center for InternationalPrograms et Ball Stste University, Muncie, IN 4730fi. Heis an arehaeologist and hss done fietd work in both Ireland(where he has Jpent approximately 3 years out of the past15) and the Eastern LJ,S., with &n emphasis on arehae-ologieal reeonnaissanee intended to ideirtify sites of verioustypes. His interest in arehaeoastronomy developed in 19?5out of efforts to analyze the Irish henge earthworks.

O'Rahilly, Thomas F.1946 Early lrish H istory and Mythology. Institute for

M6ire

Volume VIII(I-4) 1985 79