Temples of Stone – Exploring the Megalithic Monuments of Ireland –

“Round 6,000 years ago, the members of a now long-forgotten tribe dragged and lifted carefully chosen stones into place and built Ireland’s first ‘Temple of Stone’. Over the next 2,000 years hundreds of megalithic tombs were built across the country and then, around 2000 BC, the building stopped and knowledge of what these remarkable structures meant to their builders was lost.

After 4,000 years of silence, however, the stones are no longer mute. Every year archaeologists discover more about these enigmatic monuments, but instead of a single, simple answer to the question of what the megalithic tombs meant, there is a multitude of answers, eacht one more intriguing thean the last.

Temples of Stone gives insight into the world of the megaliths and their builders, shedding light on our ancestors’ belief systems and rituals, their use of symbols, sound, colour and even hallucinatory visions. All the key sites in Ireland are discussed and over 100 ‘Sites Worth Visiting’ are listed in the final chapter with photographs, maps and detailed directions.”