Aim of new guide to make Knowth accessible

‘Knowth’, a new guidebook, was officially launched by the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) in Brú na Bóinne visitor centre as a part of the National Heritage Week 2024 programme.

Guests to the launch were welcomed by the Academy’s president Professor Pat Guiry, who said: “Although this book is not as monumental in size as its cousins in the Excavations at Knowth series, it nevertheless succeeds wonderfully in doing justice to the monument it celebrates. The research it draws on is broad and interdisciplinary. It is the work of expert contributors.”

Helena King, editor of the book, worked alongside the contributors, Edel Bhreathnach, Claire Breen, Kerri Cleary, Patrizia La Piscopia, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf and Elizabeth Shee Twohig, and the RIA’s designer, Fidelma Slattery, to produce this full colour, pocket-sized guidebook, filled with photography by Ken Williams and illustrations by Steve Doogan. The work of the late archaeologist George Eogan, who directed the Knowth excavations for almost 40 years, was acknowledged and praised, with each of the speakers giving a special welcome to his wife and family who were in attendance.

This new book, with a distinctive green cover displaying motifs found in the megalithic art of Knowth, is based on material from the archaeological excavations published in the RIA’s seven-volume Excavations at Knowth series. It offers a general overview of what Knowth is all about, outlining why it is of interest and importance.

In part, it is intended as a guide that people can use to navigate their way around the site, but it is also a book that anyone can read, use and enjoy without being on site and still get a feel for Knowth and how it came to be what it is.

The book was officially launched by Chief Archaeologist at the National Monuments Service, Michael MacDonagh, who remarked that: “This book was conceived, intended and designed to be accessible to all, to make the tomb’s complexity and significance easily understood. It is no easy task to distil decades of research and knowledge of such a complex monumental landscape as Knowth into an accessible publication. In fact, it is tremendously difficult to do so. Yet here it has been unassumingly done, in a simply genius one word title little book - Knowth - that’s all. No fussy long title needed. Genius.”

The book is available now from ria.ie and selected bookshops nationwide for €18.