Web Focus on: Megalithomania

Megalithomania is the story of one man’s journey across 10 years (and counting) around the stones of Ireland. Tom Fourwinds’ site is a catalogue of over 2200 sites, containing more than 10,000 photographs of Irish sites, and is a testament to his stamina and zeal.

There are various ways to navigate around this clean looking site. You may choose to read the chronological blogs of the individual journeys, each entry of which includes a linked list of sites visited. Some of these are fascinating, and show just how much can be done in a single day if you’re single-minded enough! Or you may choose to browse through the sites by monument type, or by county. Of course, a ‘quick search’ for a site name is always available.

Each site page contains the usual site location metadata – Tom appears to know his stuff when it comes to geolocation and includes information about the site coordinates and the different coordinate systems listed – and links to varous online maps. Visitors can also add a selection of sites to a list, and download GPS POI files for personal use.

As well as the usual Visit Reports and photographs, where available there are also 3D anaglyph images, 3D animations and videos for selected sites. Each page also contains links to a selection of other sites of the same monument type, and local sites (within 50km). Visitors can give their own ratings (1-5 stars) for each site, and these are displayed on the page.

Registered members can also make use of, and contribute to the Forums which cover a range of topics for Ireland in different time periods, the UK, Europe and worldwide.

As expected, the site is part funded by a shop, selling Tom’s own books, ‘Monu-Mental About…’ – there are three books in the series so far. He even sells 3D glasses so the anaglyph images can be enjoyed in all their glory.

One interesting aspect of the site is that it also contains a wiki – Megawikimania. As Tom himself declares: “The purpose of this Wiki is to gather as much information about Irish Prehistoric and Historic monuments and sites in one place. This information can fall into several categories: excavation, directions, current condition, folklore, access, significant alignments (stellar & landscape) and general“. The wiki is maintained by trusted registered members of the forum and will extend the content of the site far beyond what Tom himself has covered via personal visits, though the wiki appears to be in its early days at the time of writing, with just over 250 sites included.

In summary, this web site can only get better, and is a must-have link for anyone interested in the site of Ireland.