Deep in the pastoral landscape of Irelands County Wexford, a shaft of concrete cleaves through a green hill like the entrance to some futuristic burial mound. This monument in the Irish rural idyll is both a symbol and a commemoration of history, marking the bicentenary of the 1798 rebellion by the Irish against English rule. Placed at the top of rising ground, at the end of a long walk, the monument consists of a grassy mound bisected by a deep passage open to the sky.

Tulach a’ tSolais Monument is an enlightenment which could be considered both the smallest and largest building on the shortlist. It is smallest because the pathway itself is measuring no more than 90 cm in width. And it is largest because in that space the passage traces a line between Oulart Hill and Vinegar Hill, 11 kilometers distant. It was also a critical location for the uprising, and runs 4 degrees off the cardinal east-west points of the compass. Sheer flanking walls frame the rays of the rising and setting sun, as well as views of Vinegar Hill to the west. On either side of the austere passage is an entrance to a chamber.

This is a double cube paved with granite slabs and split by the chasm of light. It is lined with concrete panels on which the pattern of bolt holes from the formwork is the only decoration, and split by the great chasm of light. Inside the chamber are two horizontal sculptures designed by Michael Warren, made of curving planes of 200 years old Irish oak placed according to the Golden Mean. In Tulach a’ tSolais Monument, the grave and abstract simplicity is powerful. As its character and appearance, the monument’s Irish name, Tulach a’tSolais, means “Mound of Light”.

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