Exploring Sacred Geometry of the Irish Bronze Age

ABOUT The Drombeg Stone Circle

including the Fulacht Fiadh & Sacred Well

and the associated stone circles of Bohonagh & Reenascreena

The discoveries and interviews presented here are based on the published books
"Secrets of Drombeg " by Ronan Murray ©All Rights Reserved

Possible BABYLONIAN influence in the Drombeg Stone Circle design.
See articles.. IRISH TIMES and the SOUTHERN STAR.

DROMBEG STONE CIRCLE IS PART OF A LARGER COMPLEX OF STONE CIRCLES
The book "Secrets of Drombeg" proves the extraordinary concepts behind the alignments of the solstice and equinox suns, the phases and lunations of the moon, and the 'fixed point' of the earth's polar axis in the night sky and all of this design focused on the sacred union of fire and water, of the sun and moon.
At the forefront of these discoveries is Drombeg's extraordinary Regional Triad of stone circles which is an ancient land survey that spans a traversed distance of 18 kilometres and includes the remote stone circle sites of Drombeg, Bohonagh, and Reenascreena. The 3 stone circles are designed in the form of an Equilateral Triangle using Drombeg's Axial Baseline as the centreline dividing this great equal triangle into two halves creating two perfect 30-60-90 right triangles and in their sacred numbers of numerology of adding the sum of the interior angles gave them a profound perception that Triangle equals Circle. Additionally at the Drombeg Stone Circle site the earth's immovable Polar Axis served as TRUE NORTH and the Spring Equinox sunrise served as TRUE EAST creating the sacred and universal axis of the Four Directions, North, South, East and West.

Drombeg Stone Circle On-Site Tour - Interview with Ronan Murray

 

THE SACRED WELL, THE FULACHT FIADH AND THE FIREPIT
Even more extraordinary is Drombeg's Fulacht Fiadh commonly known as an 'ancient cooking place', but at Drombeg this ancient water trough and firepit had a much more profound use in the transforming of the basic elements of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. It seems to have also included the sacred element of 'Spirit' or 'Aether' from the Sun God which may have been used in ritual fashion like a sacred forge for creating their sacred amulets, medicines, bronze axes and weapons. They joined the polarity of sunlight across the solstice year defined by sun alignments to the highest summer sunrise aligned to the sacred well in the ruins of the circular hut and the lowest winter sunset to a hillside V-Notch in the western landscape which they constructed from two overlapping hillsides to create Drombeg's Axial Baseline of Drombeg's renowned Winter Solstice sunset.

STRONG EVIDENCE TOWARDS BABYLONIAN NUMERALS AND MATHEMATICS
The book "Secrets of Drombeg" uncovers many of the mysteries about the Drombeg Stone Circle in West Cork, Ireland. In this unique book full of over 200 photos and illustrations, and accurately laid out site plans (based on the 1959 Archaeological Excavations of Edward Fahy) reveal a system of survey angles using numerals based on an arcane use of number mysticism related to the sun, moon, and pole star axis. Here you will find the original ideas and construction methods for Drombeg's Bronze Age Triad of Stone Circles. The cultural significance of this book is profound in that the concepts put forward show the Bronze Age Irish of at least 1,000 BC to have an amazing facility with numbers, geometry, and land surveying. There is a knowledge displayed at Drombeg about the number of diameters of the sun in a full solar day at the Spring Equinox measured by volumes of water using a 'water clock', and a Base-10 system of numbers, and repeating decimals which shows the highly possible influence of Babylonian numerals and mathematics used in the Mesopotamian region dating as far back as 3,000 BC.

FIRE & WATER - UNION OF THE SUN AND MOON
The discoveries at the Drombeg Stone Circle helps us to understand the people of the Bronze Age in Ireland and their thoughts, beliefs, and amazing abilities in the construction of such an enigmatic site of megalithic stones that has puzzled the minds of all who visit the site each year. The people who constructed the Drombeg Complex of stone circles were masterful in the skills of design in harmony with their natural environment. They thought to join the elements of the sky to the elements of the earth. They wanted to bring harmony and balance to the two most precious elements that defined their very survival; Sunlight and Water, and in Ireland's ancient past these two elements were personified by the Sun God and the Moon Goddess in union to the elements of the Earth who provided all their necessities of life.

LAND SURVEYING AND SACRED GEOMETRY
The people of Drombeg were not primitive as one might think in looking at the stones, but had an amazing ability with a profound system of numbers using basic math, and a system of geometric design using right triangles, circles and the pentagram star in union with the cycles of the sun, the equilateral triangle, and the circle and its axis. A point that shows their true abilities was that they did not just build the Drombeg Stone Circle, Fulacht Fiadh and its associated Huts but went as far as building a complex of three circles that spanned a distance of 18 Kilometres and all three circles joined at the points of the Equal Triangle. The Drombeg stone circle complex was no small undertaking in that it also shows the concept of using survey monuments in boulders, standing stones and hilltops to define baselines as would any land surveyor in establishing the boundaries of a building site. The geometry for sunlight entering the Drombeg Stone Circle and its relationship to the water in the Fulacht Fiadh is truly astounding in that the entire site is based on the joining of sunlight to water and in essence join the "elements" of the sky to the "elements" of the Earth. They did this with a very special relationship of numerals and angle relationships based on the number forms of the sun, moon, and the rotating polar axis.

 

DROMBEG'S WINTER SOLSTICE SUNRISE REVEALS AN ANCIENT SECRET

Ronan Murray began his on-site research at the Drombeg Stone Circle in 2005 but in 2010 a special event happened at the annual Winter Solstice sunrise alignment which set him on a path of obsession in discovering how the Drombeg Stone Circle was built.

The event was a total eclipse of the moon which happened on the same day as the Winter Solstice Sunrise on December 21st. Though the Winter Sunrise alignment happens each year, the eclipsed moon event on Dec. 21st solstice happens only every 700 years and it gave a dramatic addition to this annual event. On the back cover of the book, shown above, is the Winter Sunrise alignment which reveals the perfect alignment which orients the stone circle to the sunrise axis at exactly 7.5 degrees to Drombeg's Axial Baseline. It was this 7.5 degree sunrise axis that begins a system of proofs about the intelligence of the Bronze Age Irish and their use of the sacred spiral.

As an example of their profound skills in basic math consider this:
The ancient equation for determining the size of the Drombeg Stone Circle.
720 equinox sun diameters ÷ 7.5 degree winter sunrise axis = 96 diameter hand-width stone circle.
And this is Exactly the Diameter of the Drombeg Stone Circle.

DROMBEG'S ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY OF STONE CIRCLES
You will find in the pages of this book which are full of site plans, written narratives, photos, and illustrations the Secrets of Drombeg that have remained hidden for the past 3,000 years. The ancient builders of the Drombeg stone circle had a philosophical concept that is found in every numeral and angle they chose to define the relationship geometry between themselves, the gods, and the elements of earth and sky.
Their philosophy can be defined in three words.
The BALANCE of opposites upon the universal axis.
The HARMONY of number forms through numerals
The EQUALITY of all forms to equal the sacred circle.

ABOUT RONAN MURRAY
Ronan Murray is the Editor, Book Designer and Illustrator for Murray and McCarthy Publishing and Design and has an unbridled passion for the Drombeg Stone Circle of West Cork. Prior to his work as a small press publisher he worked for fifteen years as a Civil Engineering Draughtsman for engineers and architects and also worked with land surveyors creating traverses and reducing survey notes for contour maps. He produced site plans, topographic maps, and construction plans for companies like Bechtel on the Portland Light Rail Transit System in the US and E.G. Petitt and Company on the Cork Main Drainage project and the Warner Lambert Pharmaceutical Plant in Ringaskiddy here in Ireland.

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Secrets of Drombeg
Available at the following Libraries

Title: SECRETS OF DROMBEG
The Stone Circle and Fulacht Fiadh
Site Plans and Construction Methods
Author: Ronan Murray
Published: Murray & McCarthy Publishing
First Edition ©2013 ISBN 978-0-9556985-6-9
Second Edition ©2014 ISBN 978-0-9556985-7-6

For Loaning & Reference
CORK COUNTY LIBRARIES

Cork County Library
Library Building, Carrigrohane Road, Cork
Phone: 021 454 6499
Cork City • Bandon • Clonakilty • Skibbereen • Bantry
Contact Library for other locations. www.corkcoco.ie

In-Library Reference Only
Copyright Libraries
IRELAND

Trinity College
Dublin 2 Ireland

NUI Cork
University College Cork
Western Road Cork Ireland

University College
Belfield Dublin 2 Ireland

NUI Maynooth
National University of Ireland Co. Kildare Ireland

Dublin City University
Glasnevin Dublin 9 Ireland

NUI Galway National University of Ireland
University Road, Galway, Ireland

University of Limerick
Plassey Park Limerick Ireland

The National Library of Ireland
Kildare Street Dublin 2 Ireland

In-Library Reference Only
Copyright Libraries
ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, WALES

The British Library
Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BY UK

Bodleian Library (Oxford)
University of Oxford Broad St, Oxford, OX1 3BG, UK

Cambridge University Library
West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DR UK

The National Library of Wales
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales SY23 3BU UK

The National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge Edinburgh EH1 1EW Scotland UK

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Secrets of Drombeg

The Stone Circle and Fulacht Fiadh

by Ronan Murray

Published article in: The Irish Times
by Louise Rosengrave
Was Drombeg's Stone Circle designed using skills learned in Babylon?

>See full text.. IRISH TIMES

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The Secrets of Drombeg

Stone Circle and Fulacht Fiadh

by Ronan Murray

Published article in: West Cork People
New Discovery at the Drombeg Stone Circle
See full text below.

 

New Discovery at the Drombeg Stone Circle.

A fully Illustrated book of site plans and construction methods.

The Secrets of Drombeg - Stone Circle and Fulacht Fiadh is an extraordinary book with over 100 photos, illustrations, and site plans that describes in detail the actual concepts and construction methods for Drombeg’s unique design specific to the Cork/Kerry Stone Circles. Discover the lost Sacred Geometry the Irish used over 3,000 years ago to join their most precious elements of sunlight and water. The Secrets of Drombeg is a self published book and is the result of 7 years of on-site research about the concepts and construction methods used to build the Drombeg Stone Circle, its associated huts, and the remote stone circle sites at Bohonagh and Reenascreena.

The cultural significance of this book is profound in that the concepts put forward shows the Bronze Age Irish of 1,000 BC to have an amazing facility with numbers, geometry, and land surveying. There is a knowledge displayed at Drombeg about the cycle of the sun at the Equinox that also shows the influence of the Babylonian numeral system, geometry, and mathematics used in the Mesopotamian region dating as far back as 3,000 BC.

This discovery helps us to understand the people of the Early Bronze Age in Ireland and their thoughts, beliefs, and amazing abilities in the construction of such an enigmatic site of megalithic stones that has puzzled the minds of all who visit the site each year.

The people who constructed the Drombeg Complex of stone circles were masterful in the skills of design in harmony with their natural environment. At the core of their design was balance, harmony, and equality. They joined the elements of the sky to the elements of the earth with a very specific relationship of angles and forms derived from the joining of the sun cycle to the equal triangle to bring harmony and balance to the two most precious elements that defined their very survival; Sunlight and Water. In the Early Bronze Age these two elements were very possibly personified by the Sun God and the Goddess of the Earth.

The people of Drombeg were not primitive as one might think in looking at the stones, but had an amazing ability with a System of Numbers, and Geometric Design which they derived from the Cycles of the Sun, the Equal Triangle, the Circle and its Axis.

A point that shows their true abilities was that they did not just build the Drombeg stone circle, but went as far as building a Complex of three stone circle sites, Drombeg, Bohonagh, and Reenascreena, that spanned a distance of 24 Kilometres and all three circles joined at the points of the Equilateral Triangle and aligned to the North Star. The Drombeg Complex was no small undertaking in that it also shows the same concepts of using monuments from hilltops to define baselines as would any Land Surveyor in establishing the boundaries of a building site.

There is also evidence that shows that the landscape was greatly altered and that they actually constructed the famous hillside V-notch of the Winter Solstice Sunset to accomplish the necessary angles to align the sun to the stone circle. Additionally two of the stones were removed and one was broken and fallen. Edward Fahy in his excavation in 1959 replaced and reset these stones in their orginal positions. They were the stones that defined the Sun’s orientation, the Equinox axis, and the North Star alignment.

Ronan Murray, a resident of Ardfield, Clonakilty, Co. Cork, is a self published author and graphic designer who owns and operates a small graphic design and book publishing business, Murray & McCarthy Publishing and Design.

He began his research on Drombeg in 2005 when this Bronze Age monument was still all but a profound mystery. His previous 15 year career in Civil Draughting and Land Surveying provided the map making and surveying skills needed to discover the Sacred Geometry of the Drombeg Triad of Stone Circles.

The Secrets of Drombeg is available directly through the author/publisher by email orders@mcpublishing.ie

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Secrets of Drombeg

The Stone Circle and Fulacht Fiadh

by Ronan Murray

Published article in: The Southern Star - 20 Dec. 2014
Author shares theories on Drombeg Stone Circle
Journalist: Louise Roseingrave

See full text below.

This Sunday on the Winter Solstice, crowds will gather at Glandore’s Drombeg Stone Circle to Witness ancient intelligence in action.

Before its excavation in the late 1950’s, the 17 stone circle, with a diameter of 9.3 m, was known locally as the Druid’s Altar, due to the large flat nature of the circle’s axial stone. Post excavation, the Bronze Age megalithic site became known as the Drombeg Stone Circle, but it was always understood to be dedicated to sun worship.

Eugene Daly’s book, Leap and Glandore, Fact and Fiction features a quote from a pupil at Corran National School documented as part of the Irish School’s Folklore Scheme in the 1930’s, in which the circle is described as situated in the lands of one Mr. Jones, of Glandore.

“There is a circle known as the Druid’s Circle and as they are all facing east, they are supposed to be dedicated to sun worship,’ the child’s account stated.

The stones are not facing east, but the child had grasped the basic concept, upon which the writer of the book ‘Secrets of Drombeg’ builds.

Author Ronan Murray has collated nine years of ‘obsessive’ research at Drombeg in which he purports dramatic new theories behind the site, which involves the itself, the remains of two nearby huts, a fulacht fiadh and the surrounding hinterland.

“This is an example of engineering and architecture from an amazing people that lived 3,000 years ago, who had an unbelievable facility with numbers and basic right triangle geometry,’ Murray said.

He believes the circle shows clear evidence of Babylonian design concepts based on specific numbers, angles and astronomical alignments.

“They created a harmonious geometry based on numeral compatibility between the sun, moon and stars,” he says.

Originally from Oregon, where he worked as a civil draftsman and surveyor, Murray, 58, arrived here in 1996. Fascinated by Ireland’s past, he began to explore and eventually settled in Ardfield.

He believes he has hit upon a dramatic new historical interpretation of the stone circle site at Drombeg, which could deepen our understanding of the belief systems of our Bronze Age fore-bearers.

His 216 page hand-bound self published book is based on his research which included ‘hundreds’ of trips to Drombeg, thousands of photographs and years of applying and testing his theories.

Perhaps the most significant of these is his theory that the circle shows clear evidence of Babylonian design concepts as part of its ancient geometry.

“The site construction has many similarities to the numerals, mathematics and astronomy of the ancient Babylonians and Sumerians from as far back as 3,000 BC. These construction methods could have developed indigenously with periodic influences when trading with the continent for tin to strengthen the copper for their bronze axes,’ Murray says in his book.

For the first time, Murray links the circle and its neighbouring huts and fulacht fiadh through geometry, purporting a new theory on the sites’ functions that he says can be proven through basic maths.

The book contains concepts not put forward as a ‘definitive academic’ work, Murray says, but to ‘show the uncanny similarities between the diverse cultures and disciplines of various civilisations throughout history.

Murray believes there is a ‘profound system’ at work in Drombeg. It is part of a ‘regional triad’ of remote stone circles that form a 24km equilateral triangle.

To the north, the triad includes a stone circle at Reenascreena 8km away and 8km to the east, a stone circle at Bohonagh. The triad, Murray says, is aligned to the north star.

“Additionally, the entire system of design is based on the triangle’s relationship to the 720 sun diameters of the sun, with the moon’s inclusion through and extraordinary system of numerals, ratios, proportions, mathematics and ‘place value’ of which many are found in Babylonian numerals and mathematics.”

Predicted times of sunrise and sunset in Cork this Sunday 21 is at 8:39am and 16:25pm.
Ronan Murray will be selling copies of his book at Drombeg Stone Circle on December 21 at €36. Books are also available to order from www.mcpublishing.ie

www.mcpublishing.ie

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