Listoghil

Listoghil (Irish: Lios an tSeagail) is the large central monument in the Carrowmore group of prehistoric tombs in County Sligo in Ireland. It was numbered as Carrowmore 51 by George Petrie in 1837 and this designation is still used. Although the district of Cuil Irra, is steeped in legend, Listoghil has never been satisfactorily connected with the ancient legends in the way that say Newgrange has. Antiquarians in the 19th century made references to another cairn nearby at Leacharail, but the site of this has never been located.

According to Petrie (Letter to Larcom, Aug. 1837), the name may mean 'Ryefort' (it appears as Lios a' tSeagail, seagail meaning rye in Irish, in early maps). However lios in Irish refers generally to a court or enclosed area, so it may be that the name originally referred to the area enclosed by the dolmens, on which Listoghil stands, rather than the cairn itself.

Listoghil stands 59m above sea level at the geographic centre of the Cúil Irra peninsula, c.3 km from Sligo town. Set close to the highest point in the complex, along a low ridge, it acts as the focus of the Carrowmore passage tomb complex. To the west is Knocknarea with Miosgán Médhbh and to the east the two great cairns on Cairns hill.

It is surrounded - and generally, faced - by a cluster of 'dolmen circles', classified as passage tombs by archaeologists. Unlike these uncovered chambers, the central monument seems to have had a cairn or covering mound of stones. It is also much bigger than its satellites, being about 34m in diameter, the satellites average about 15m. The cairn close by on Knocknarea, is twice the diameter, and stands at about 10 m high.

Writings by Charles Elcock from the 1880s describe workmen removing the stones for 'road metal'. Only when quarrymen uncovered the tomb chamber in the middle of the mound did its destruction end. By the end of the 19th century the tomb had been investigated by antiquarians of the period who recorded finding 'bones of horses', charred wood and a worked flint javelin head. Some materials from this tomb are in the Alnwick Castle collection

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