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A campaign to Save Bremore claims that the coastal strip
on the Meath/Dublin border may be one of the richest archaeological
areas in Ireland, with aspects comparable to the Hill of Tara.
Among the heritage sites in the locality is the Bremore passage
tomb complex - a designated national monument - a series of
several unclassified monuments in the Knocknagin townland
and the mid-16th-century Newhaven Bay.
Drogheda Port and companies associated with Treasury Holdings
have earmarked the area for the development of a deepwater
port, industrial units, a motorway link to the M1 and a new
rail link to the main Dublin-Belfast railway.
According to archaeologist Prof George Eogan - “Bremore may
have been the first point of entry for the settlements of
what is now known as Fingal/east Meath and the Boyne Valley
area.”
Save
Bremore claims the Bremore passage tomb and adjacent
Gormanston passage tomb should be considered within the greater
context of passage tombs nearby at Knowth, Dowth and Newgrange.
The group quoted from archaeologist Dr Mark Clinton of An
Taisce’s national monuments and antiquities committee, who
has said that one mound at the tomb complex had an entrance
orientation indicating the possibility that it was aligned
with the summer solstice.
“In this regard - and given their morphology and geographical
location - there’s every possibility the builders were the
near ancestors of those that built the nearby world-acclaimed
tombs of Brú na Bóinne.”
Dr Clinton said that, archaeologically, Bremore was comparable
with Tara. “Tara started with a passage tomb known as the
Mound of the Hostages and developed over different periods.
Likewise, the Bremore tombs would appear to be the start of
Brú na Bóinne.
“The parallel is clear - no Mound of the Hostages, no Tara
- no Bremore, no Newgrange.”
Source - The Irish Times
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