Seefin Passage Tomb
A Guide to the Enigmatic Cairn of the Wicklow Mountains
Location
In the heart of the Wicklow Mountains, surrounded by a desolate gorse landscape, lies the Seefin Passage Tomb (Irish: Tuama Pasáiste Shuí Finn). This ancient monument crowns the summit of Seefin Hill, just south of the Kilbride Army Camp. The surrounding peaks of Seefingan and Seahan also bear the marks of human passage through time, with their own ancient cairns standing as sentinels over the landscape.
History
Journey back to a time before time, around 3300 BC, when the people of Ireland's Neolithic age constructed this phenomenal tomb. It was in the year 1931 that R. A. Stewart Macalister dared to unearth its secrets, yet he found no artefacts or human remains. Was this a tomb that never held the dead, or were its secrets stolen away by time's relentless march? The answers lie buried deep within the whispers of the wind and the shadows of the past.
The Seefin Passage Tomb stands as a solemn guardian over the ages, a stone cairn of grand proportions, measuring 24 meters (79 feet) in diameter and rising 3 meters (9.8 feet) high. Massive kerb stones encircle its base, holding in place the mysteries of millennia. A passageway, 7 meters (23 feet) long, beckons the brave to step into its dark foreboding embrace, leading into a chamber with five compartments, each a silent witness to forgotten rites and rituals.
Within this sacred space, carved decorations emerge from the stones, lozenge shapes, and lines that speak in a language lost to time. Quartz stones glisten in the dim light, their secrets locked away, awaiting those who dare to seek the truth beneath Seefin’s brooding presence.
Here, atop Seefin Hill, time stands still, and the air is thick with the weight of history and legend. Visitors who tread these ancient paths should do so with reverence, for they walk among the echoes of the past, where every stone has a story to tell, and every whisper of the wind carries the voices of the ancients.
Directions
Google Maps will get you to the Seefin Trailhead car park, there is a second car parking spot a few more metres down the road by a forest of pine trees. Do not head down the side of the hill into this forest like we did initially (on the right hand side of the road), instead, you will see a wooden stile on the left hand side of the road (opposite the car parks) that grants access to a piece of land on the edge of the Kilbride army cap. It can be somewhat hidden in summer due to foliage growth but you will head through here along the line of trees and a fence upwards towards the summit of the hill.
We were somewhat unprepared for the steep hike to Seefin! Luckily we had fantastic weather but the trail is boggy and quite vertical at points. It takes about 45 minutes to get to the summit. Having said that there were families with children doing the climb but it requires moderate fitness levels, proper footwear, water, snacks and a hat. Having said that, the hike was well worth it and maybe made it even sweeter.
