Country diary: Ancient art to make the imagination soar | Mary Montague

Knowth, County Meath, Ireland: In among the summer-green fields here is the great mound, constructed by neolithic man with, perhaps, one eye to the skyFrom the top of Knowth's great mound, my gaze leaps over its smaller satellite mounds and wanders across an expanse of summer-green fields. This is Brú na Bóinne, a vast neolithic complex looped by the River Boyne, where the landscape is dominated by three artificial "hills" that were layered over passage tombs built about 5,000 years ago.The most famous of the three is to the south - Newgrange, which is aligned with the winter solstice sunrise. To the east is Dowth, which aligns with winter sunsets. And then there's this one beneath my feet, the great mound, containing two back-to-back chambers facing east and west. As ever with such ancient structures, the big question is: what was it for? Continue reading...