Shadows and Stone - Photography by Ken Williams

21/12/2025

Winter solstice sunset just a few minutes ago inside Dowth passage tomb, County Meath, Ireland.

This large passage tomb is near Newgrange and one of the three great tombs of the Boyne Valley, with Knowth making up the trio. Despite some persistent cloud we were lucky to have a few minutes of golden light on the chamber floor.

The sun has now sunk into a thick bank of cloud, on a clear evening the sun strikes the floor over an hour before sunset and as the sun sinks lower, the beam climbs up the back wall of the chamber.

Photos from my phone’s camera.

20/12/2025

Light and shadow on the famous carved stone, numbered L19, in the passage of Newgrange.

5,000 years ago, people brought light, art and architecture together in the design of Irish passage tombs. The greatest example of all is found here at Newgrange, County Meath.

At dawn tomorrow, if all comes together, the lucky few inside will see sunlight reach through the specially designed roof box, along the narrow passage and illuminate the chamber floor. The reflected light from the floor gives the normally dark chamber a beautiful pale orange glow. Slowly, as the sun rises, the light intensifies. The beam broadens from a thin, bright pencil into a long, dagger of light before slowly withdrawing along the passage. The phenomenon lasts approximately 17 minutes.

I”ve been checking the weather and at the moment it is looking hopeful for the morning of the winter solstice, though large crowds will gather outside the monument regardless of clouds or rain. Many more will hopefully be able to witness the phenomenon during the live broadcast provided by the OPW and hosted by Dr, Clare Tuffy and Dr. Frank Prendergast, link to the free broadcast in the comments below.

29/11/2025

Now this was an absolute delight, definitely the highlight of yesterday’s trip to Northern Ireland. Imagine having this wonderful prehistoric rock art site located in your front garden! This site is on the Ards Peninsula, in County Down.

There are only a few Atlantic Rock Art sites in this part of the east coast of Northern Ireland, this piece is also particularly interesting in that there are two sets of cup and rings which are joined together. One of the sets of rings is much fainter than the other, which may suggest two phases of carving. It’s tempting to think the fainter one is much older and therefore more eroded, but I couldn’t make out traces of the ‘missing part’ of these faint grooves within the ridges of the deeper cut motif. Very intriguing. It could be that the fainter motif was made with a different technique or made by a different carver.

Not only was the very interesting example located again from under a loose cover of leaves and needles, I also had a very welcome cup of top quality coffee and fresh baked bread to warm up with. All thanks to the warm welcome of Ballyward Croft (which also has a wonderful AirBnB just across the lawn from the rock art! Link below).

I guess the cat has taken up the role of ‘guardian of the stone’, very curious to see what I was doing and what was so interesting about this particular rock under the hedge. It wasn’t long after that I was also joined by a pair of tiny Pygmy goats, this place really has it all.

Please remember, this rock art is in the garden of a private home. All visits should be arranged in advance.

21/11/2025

The megalithic monuments at Knocknakilla, on a hillside in the Boggeragh Mountains, County Cork, Ireland. Spent an hour or so here last night while skies were crisp and clear. A hard frost made the usually boggy ground almost as rock hard as this wonderful collection of Bronze Age monuments.
‘Milky Way Season’, the few months centring around summer when the core is more visible and dramatic, may well be over but I could still clearly make it out with the naked eye.

Here at Knocknakilla you’ll find a small, partly ruined five-stone circle and a pair of very tall standing stones, one of which has fallen. A small radial cairn, now reduced to a low kerb of small rocks, sits just a few metres away. This combination is fairly common in this region, other examples can be found at Knockraheen, Kealkill and also, just a kilometre or so away, at Cloghboola Beg.

The stones that make up the stone circle are thin, finger-like pillars, unlike the more common blocky type stones used at most similar sites. Three are standing and two fallen over. In his book ‘The Dolmens of Ireland’ (1897), William Borlase shows the two fallen stones still upright and it appears they were still upright when the site was excavated in 1931. The excavation showed the interior of the circle had a kind of rough paving and there were quantities of quartz scattered around the circle entrance.

The two very tall pillars stood in alignment with the circle, the pointed stone that still stands today is about 3m tall. The fallen one is about 4m long but when in its socket would likely have been a good match for the other stone.

22/09/2025

We've reached the equinox again! For the day that's in it, here's looking back at the first time I was able to capture the light of the equinox dawn illuminating the chamber of Cairn T, Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland. These photos were taken 20 years ago, in September 2005, after several failed attempts to catch the equinox alignment over the two years previous to this.

We had a bright moon overhead to guide us up the hill before dawn, before the sky turned a spectacular red and purple at sunrise. Then, about five minutes or so after sunrise, the first light entered the rear chamber and began to illuminate the sun-like carvings on the stone commonly referred to as the 'Equinox Stone'.

An unforgettable morning, it was such a joy to look back over these last night and revisit that very first experience of the golden dawn light inside Cairn T.

RTÉ were there on the same morning to film the event, the link to the video is in the first comment.

02/09/2025

Pretty excited to share that the Knowth book published last year aimed at bringing the significance and complexity of Knowth to a wider audience just won the European Association of Archaeologists book of the year in the ‘Archaeology and the Public’ category.

It was a very rewarding project to be part of, and I’m thankful my photography could contribute to it. Huge congrats to the whole crew who put this together— well deserved!

‘Knowth’ (edited by Helena King) wins this year’s prestigious European Association of Archaeologists Book Prize in the ‘Archaeology and the public’ category at the opening ceremony of the 31st EAA Annual Meeting which took place on 2 September 2025.

Helena King, on accepting the award, said ‘the idea with this book was to bring the wonder of Knowth to the broader public, beyond the world of archaeology and archaeologists. To provide an overview of what Knowth is all about, and what’s visible on site today, in an accessible, approachable and portable guide that also points to the deeper wealth of knowledge available for those who might be interested in this fascinating place.’

‘Being awarded the EAA Book Prize makes me think we must have got something right!’

Read more about the award and the book here - https://www.ria.ie/2025/09/02/knowth-wins-this-years-prestigious-european-association-of-archaeologists-book-prize/

Brú na Bóinne - Newgrange and Knowth
EAA European Association of Archaeologists
OPW - Office of Public Works
National Monuments Service - Archaeology
Publishing Ireland
Maguires Hill of Tara
Tuatha
Books Ireland

08/08/2025

Doll Tor Stone Circle, a rather small but perfectly wonderful Bronze Age stone circle located on the edge of a wooded area in the Peak District of England.

I've been looking forward to visiting this stone circle for almost twenty years, ever since I saw photographs of it uploaded to The Modern Antiquarian website. At first glance, it could be right at home in the south west of Ireland, among the small five and seven stone circles of Cork and Kerry. The long stone set sideways on the far side of the circle is set remarkably like the recumbent or axial stone in the Cork and Kerry circles. Directly opposite this stone, however, nearest the camera, is a single, squat stone where in the Irish sites there would be a pair of well matched stones, forming a portal or entrance.

Another similarity with the Cork and Kerry stone circles is the adjacent cairn, now almost entirely ruined, hidden among the ferns in the foreground. The Cork and Kerry sites are often associated with small cairns, sometimes edged with many small upright stones. Unlike Doll Tor, however, they are usually set at least a few metres away, instead of directly against it here.

The stone circle has a very complex history, both in prehistoric times and in recent centuries. The six stones of the circle had small flat stones added around the circumference, possibly built up into a drystone revetment enclosing the circular space. The cairn mentioned above, with what appears to be a small rectangular central chamber or cist inside it, was built against the circle and incorporated one of its stones. Some of the more recent episodes of disturbance are very regrettable.

When the site was first excavated in the 1850s, only four stones were still upright. Cremations, 'urns' and small cups, suggested to be 'incense cups', were found inside the circle. Further excavations in the 1930s uncovered a 'deep stone' almost at the centre of the circle, the adjoining cairn, more cremations and pieces of pottery. In the rough burial chamber of the cairn was a cremation, probably that of an adult female. With this burial was an unusual segmented faience bead.

Even as the excavations in the 1930s were underway, the circle was seriously vandalised, with three stones being smashed into small pieces. The pieces were reassembled and restored as the excavation neared completion.

Vandalism occurred again in 1993, with more stones added, parts of the kerb and cairn removed and an attempt was made to make a small bank around the cairn's central chamber. As a result, another smaller scale excavation was carried out to identify the sockets of the fallen stones and these were then re-erected, making the six stone circle complete once more.

Vandals again targeted the circle in 2020, with small stones moved and fires set inside the circle.

On my recent morning visit, the circle and the surrounding woodland were perfectly peaceful and only very close examination of the stones showed up the scars of its difficult life.

29/07/2025

Moel Tŷ Uchaf Stone Circle with the waxing crescent moon last night, Denbighshire, North Wales. Quite a hike up to the top of this hill, but the stone circle (or more probably a robbed-out ring cairn) has superb views from this wonderful monument. Just about made it for sunset, then stayed for the moon to set just over an hour later.

The monument probably dates to the Bronze Age. In the centre is a depression with a flat stone just visible through the grass, probably the remains of a central cist burial.

22/06/2025

Summer Solstice sunset at Carrowmore Tomb 27, one of the larger monuments of this Neolithic passage tomb complex on the west coast of Ireland, near the town of Sligo.

Carrowmore 27 is the only cruciform tomb at Carrowmore, it has only a short entrance, rather than a passage as such. The chamber points to the north west and in a paper published in 2016, Dr. Frank Prendergast classified it as a summer solstice sunset alignment. This was following a detailed survey of the monument. To my knowledge, however, there has yet to be any photographs of the alignment on the sunset published anywhere in print or on the web. The final aerial photograph was taken in winter, but shows the structure much more clearly than in its current overgrown state.

I arrived early yesterday evening and, after stamping down some briars, could see the sun was starting to line up very well with the centre line of the chamber. The following are some of the photographs I was able to capture. As the sun sank towards the horizon a tree in its path partially obscured the solar disc, nonetheless, this appears to confirm Frank’s survey.

Carrowmore 27 was excavated in the late 1970s by a Swedish team led by Göran Burenhult. They found clear evidence for Neolithic burials as well as a curious period of re-use in the Iron Age, during which time skulls appear to have been deposited in the central chamber. Directly in line with the chamber and the kerb was a small secondary burial cist. The monuments at Carrowmore are generally dated to between 3,600-2,900BC, although some early, anomalous, dates suggest activity in the area for some hundreds of years before this date range.

01/06/2025

A mystery solved, during a burst of sunshine and rain, on Friday evening at one of the most picturesque megalithic tombs in Ireland. This is Tawnatruffaun Dolmen, County Sligo. Locals know it better as ‘The Griddle Stone’

On my first visits here in 2005 and 2006, the landscape on both sides of the tomb was densely planted with forestry. This is the first time I have seen it since the clearing of the fields and this has really opened up the views. The portal tomb is close to the flat top of a little valley with a stream running east to west towards the Easky River below.

The ‘rock art’:
A low network of field walls run from either end of the tomb, likely re-using stone from the cairn which probably ran for a distance behind the tomb. Within this wall, the antiquarian W. G. Wood Martin found what he described in 1888 as cup and circle carvings, in the style of Atlantic rock art. He hinted that they looked a bit like millstones. They are listed on the National Monuments Service sites and monuments record as rock art.

For many years their location was unknown, however Tom FourWinds and I located one of the stones built in to the base of the wall downhill from the monument sometime around 2009. We were both satisfied that this was indeed a millstone that had probably broken down the middle while being made, leaving the outline of what would have been the central hole.
On Friday I found the other stone in the same part of the wall, it has a very long curved groove running across it. This too looks like an abandoned attempt to make a millstone, which had broken before the curved edge was finished. One of the millstones has other short grooves on it that could be intentional, or could just be remnants of how the surface was being worked to flatten it. I’m looking through the photos of these now.