Several new discoveries on the "fairy" hill of Knockma in north Galway suggest that it was a significant ceremonial area dating from Neolithic times, according to two archaeologists.
However, quarrying on private lands nearby is posing a threat to a "sacred landscape of national significance", according to Clifden-based archaeologist Michael Gibbons.
The 552-ft high Knockma (from the Irish "cnoc mag", the hill of the plain), is best known as home of Finvarra, king of the Connacht fairies, while Queen Maeve of Connacht is reputed to have been buried there.
The limestone summit, which commands views of Galway Bay the Burren, Lough Corrib and Cong, is marked by four stone cairns which may be passage tombs. The central cairn is said to have been the burial place of Noah's granddaughter Ceasair, and bears her name, translated as "Carn Ceasra".
Another of the cairns was remodelled as "Finvarra's castle". There are several additional cairns farther down and the general area is rich in archaeological features ranging in date from the later Mesolithic (6,000-7,000BC) to early pre-Christian periods.
Archaeologists Nora Brennan and Michael Gibbons have recently discovered several new tombs and the remains of a hill fort on a subsidiary ridge to the east of Knockma.
A similar hill fort was recorded on nearby Knockcarrigeen hill during the course of the Galway Archaeological Survey, and this hill fort encloses two passage tombs.
The archaeologists note that no Bronze Age material has been identified on Knockma.
Dating of finds has also been complicated by the fact that the Kirwan family, one of Galway's "tribes", is believed to have engaged in some remodelling of monuments.
The family built its base at Castlehacket at the foot of Knockma during the 18th century. As a result of the interference, several of the cairns on the hill were given a "step-like" profile. The Kirwans also built follies from them and laid out a "new conceptual landscape" during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Gibbons says other field monuments, such as raths and cashels on the lower slopes, have been destroyed without excavation in recent years, possibly by farming.
The archaeologists believe that Knockma's status, and its relationship with Knockcarrigeen hill, deserve reassessment. The fact that one of Knockma's cairns is contained within a multi-walled hilltop enclosure dating from the late Bronze Age suggests that the hill was "at the centre of a living, multi-period ceremonial landscape", they contend.
A recent history of the Kirwans of Castlehacket by Ronan Lynch also suggests that Knockma is as significant as Uisneach, Co Westmeath, Newgrange and Loughcrew, Co Meath, and that its cairns were originally passage chambers which were aligned with ritual significance.
Gibbons says that partial State ownership of the Knockma uplands will only afford partial protection, and that quarrying in the area could have a "massive" and irrevocable impact.