New book claims to unlock mystery of local stones

Three stones outside Westport form a map of the night skies 6,100 years ago, according to new work by Westport-based art and culture house IrieLand. The meaning of the Boheh stone, Lankill Stone and Cross Man stone are thought to be lost in time, and scholars and researchers consider their decorations to be an unsolvable mystery. It is commonly written that such ‘cup and ring’ marks are simply decorations. IrieLand now shows that the stones have meaning that will cause a re-think of our view of Irish history.

Local folklore and history in County Mayo stretching back into the 1800s records that some of the megaliths of County Mayo are more than 6,000 years old, and that they are the work of druids.

Dr Rónán Lynch, director at IrieLand, put that theory to the test, using astronomy software to map the night skies over Mayo from 4,200 BCE forward. He discovered that the Southern Cross was visible over the southern horizon for thousands of years up until the year 4,100 BCE when the constellation dipped out of sight.

“Our ancestors understood and mapped out complex astronomical concepts such as the precession of the equinoxes, which is a cycle of almost 26,000 years, as the earth moves through each of the zodiac signs for a little over 2,000 years at a time,” said Dr Lynch.

“They then marked it in stone for future generations.” One of the three stones, the Cross Man stone, contains directions to the Southern Pole. “This is incredibly useful information for sailors and navigators,” he said. “It was not until around 1500 that Europeans re-discovered the Southern Cross from old Greek records,” he said. “It was the Medici family that kept this knowledge secret and used it to reach East Africa and Asia.

“Historians have written that the crosses on all three stones were thousands of years later to Christianise the stones. We show that the crosses were there from the beginning.”

IrieLand presents 'Three Stones: The Cross and the Circle' as an immersive experience at the Gallery opposite the Westport Plaza Hotel, running from September 21 to 30 on weekday evenings. Admission is free and by ticket only. Tickets are available to book through the IrieLand website irieland.co.