Knocknarea — Queen Maeve's Cairn

Knocknarea ('Hill of the Kings') rises 327 metres above Sligo Bay and is capped by Miosgán Médhbh — the cairn of Maeve — a passage tomb mound approximately 55 metres in diameter and 10 metres high containing an estimated 40,000 tonnes of stone. It has never been excavated, making it one of the largest un-opened Neolithic monuments in Ireland.

Maeve (Medb) of Connacht is one of the central figures of the Ulster Cycle, the warrior queen whose cattle raid on Ulster forms the subject of Táin Bó Cúailnge, Ireland's greatest prose epic. She is associated with sovereignty, intoxication, and ritual sexual power — in some traditions she is a goddess of the land who must be mated with each new king. The hilltop offers a panorama of the ancient sacred landscape of Sligo, including Carrowmore (one of Europe's largest megalithic cemeteries) and the nearby passage tomb at Carrowkeel.