Field seminar at Newgrange, Knowth & Dowth

Students studying ID003 The Cultural Heritage of Newgrange and the Certificate in Irish Cultural Heritage will participate in a field seminar at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Boyne Valley Complex on Thursday. Each of the three sites will be explored and the focus of a detailed exploration and discussion. These are Ireland's, and indeed Europe's, most important passage tomb cemetery, containing the three largest artificial structures of this type in Neolithic Europe. In addition to their use as burial places the tombs were the focus of an elaborate ‘Cult of the Ancestors’. Long after its prehistoric abandonment the Knowth mound was fortified and became the residence of the kings of North Brega, one of the most powerful new families of the Uí Neill (O Neill) dynasty descended from the legendary founder Niall Noígiallach (‘Niall of the Nine Hostages’).