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| Court-tombs = Portal-tombs = Wedge-tombs = Passage-tombs = Stone Circles | France | |
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SELECTED MONUMENTS IN
Place-names in italics refer to listed entries.
Aghascrebagh: Ogam-stone
2.5 km ENE of Greencastle (to the N of a by-road) and 800 metres W of Dún Ruadh multiple-kist cairn and circle, this is one of the very few Ogam stones in the north of Ireland, and almost certainly a standing-stone before ogam was cut into it. The stone, 1.2 metres high, had fallen and has been re-erected. The much-worn inscription has been interpreted as DOTETTO MAQI MAGLANI - of which only seven letters can now be read. About 200 metres to the W is another, larger (ogamless) standing-stone. ~ 6.5 km E are Beaghmore stone circles and rows.
Altdrumman: Portal-tomb
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Marked as "Chambered Grave" on the map, this picturesque dolmen resembles the much larger one at Carrickglass, Sligo, both for the herbage growing on the massive capstone, and for the relative smallness of the supporting stones - which are not as tall as the one-metre-thick capstone. It is known as The Cloghogle (Irish:
cloch togálach
= raised stone).
~ 1.2 km NE, to the E of a by-road in Loughmacrory (H 585 776) is a fine wedge-tomb known as Dermot and Grania's Bed , offering fine views. Four of its 5 roofstones are in place, much of the cairn survives, and the entrance to the antechamber or portico has a dividing-stone similar to that at Dunnamore . A hawthorn-tree now grows picturesquely out of the gallery. ~ 800 metres E by N of the portal-tomb, also in Loughmacrory , immediately SW of a by-road (H 585 770), are the impressive remains of a court-tomb, stretching some 25 metres back from the road. Much of the cairn and kerb survive. At the SW end are the apparent remains of 2 subsidiary chambers. ~ 850 metres N by E of Altdrumman portal-tomb, 140 metres E of Lough Fingrean, is another intact court-tomb (with roofstones); and 130 metres S of this a kist whose large capstone only is visible on top of a low mound. ~ 7.2 km SE of the portal-tomb is another portal-tomb at Athenree (also marked "Chambered Grave"), 300 metres behind (E of) Termon House, approached by a private track from the stableyard. Before one of the portal-stones crumbled away under the weight of the enormous capstone (4.8 x 3.6 metres and 1 metre thick), it must have been quite magnificent.
Balix Lower: Single-court tomb
300 metres up a hill from a two-storey farmhouse to the W of a by-road, is a tomb with a V-shaped forecourt leading into a (probable) two-chambered gallery which ends in a high-pointed backstone. The N arm of the forecourt leads to an entrance-sill, and the S arm leads to the middle of the S entry-jamb.
~ 1.7km SSE are Clogherny wedge-tomb and stone circle (H 488 945)
Ballyrenan: Portal-tombs
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To the N of a narrow by-road leading E off the Newtownstewart-Drumquin road is a long cairn (scattered as is much of Ireland with agricultural refuse) at whose W end is a picturesque and unusual double portal-tomb
(The Cloghogle)
roofed with two lintels and two roofstones - both of which have several cup-marks (or natural solution-pits). The excavator thought that a subsidiary tomb had been built against a primary one. At the E end of the cairn is another portal-tomb, roofless, with a high sill-stone and tall portal-stones. Near the W end of the cairn is a small rectangular block of stone with criss-cross grooves on its upper horizontal surface.
~ 6.4 km NE is another portal-tomb at Crosh (H 417 878), whose capstone has fallen from the portal-stones which are over 3 metres high, and between which is a door-slab 1.2 metres high. ~ 6.2 km NNW of Ballyrenan and 1.5 km NNW of Ardstraw, beside a farm in Clady Halliday (H 344 886) is a single-court tomb with 3 chambers, a large, horseshoe-shaped forecourt, and some dry-walling between the low orthostats of the court. Some corbel-stones to support the roof remain on the much larger first chamber.
Ballywholan
(pronounced 'Ballyhollan')
: Double-court tomb and portal-tomb
200 metres NE of the Greaghnasunna Bridge over the Fury river, 5.6 km SE of Clogher, stands "Carnagat" (the cat's cairn) - a small, relatively well-preserved tomb with much of its cairn. It is about 20 metres long, and composed of two double-chambered galleries and forecourts. A frontal kerb joins the SE court to the sides of the cairn. The NE court has tall flanking-stones, and one of the jamb-stones bears a cup-mark. The backstone of the N gallery is gabled. Roof-slabs are scattered about. At the end of thr 19th century a local farmer took one of the lintel-stones to build a barn, but when it was cemented in it emitted a strange radiance. The farmer returned it to the tomb - whence it subsequently disappeared, presumably incorporated in another local building by a less-sensitive man.
~ 2.4 km NE and 120 metres N of another by-road in the same townland is "Carnfadrig", another cairn over 20 metres long, surviving to a height of over 2 metres. At the E end are remains of a portal-tomb with a rectangular chamber composed of 3 long slabs and a three-quarter sill which has fallen into the chamber. One portal-stone has fallen against the other. At the W end of the cairn is a long subsidiary chamber or gallery divided into two or possibly three sections, but no entrance to it is now apparent. This monument shows very well the relation between court- and portal-tombs. ~ 2.4 km ESE of Carnfadrig and 1.7 km NE of Carnagat, in Cullamore , near the top of Cullamore Hill about 400 metres NE of a by-road, is "The Giant's Grave" - another court-tomb, smaller and somewhat ruined, but with some fine court-stones. One has fallen to reveal dry-stone filling. At present only 2 chambers (with good jamb-stones) survive intact. ~ 2 km NE of Cullamore, at Altadaven in Favor Royal Forest (H 596 496) is "St Patrick's Chair and Well". Perhaps no place in Ireland seems closer to the dark Celtic Otherworld than "Spink-ana-gaev"or Pinnacle Rock, a strange and eerie pile of boulders. "St Patrick's Chair" is a massive block about 2 metres high, shaped like a chair and probably at least partly-artificial, sitting on a another large block amongst a dozen or more other blocks, one of which has a cup-mark and an unfinished cup-mark. Below the Chair is the well - in fact an open chamber above which is another massive boulder containing a fine bullaun 25 cms in diameter. A supporting boulder has a good cup-mark. Altadaven means "The Demons' Cliff", over which St Patrick (or St Brigid) is reputed to have driven devils - thus pointing to the site's ancient ritual significance. Lughnasa (Lammastide) celebrations were held here until relatively recently. The well is also known as "St Brigid's" and the confusion between the two saints (the latter bearing the same name as the virgin aspect of the triple moon-goddess) suggests that the site was hardly - if ever - Christianised.
Beaghmore: Stone circles and rows
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Some 13
km WNW of Cookstown, to the W of a by-road, this superb site is the only maintained, excavated stone-circle site amongst nearly 150 in the Sperrin hills. Circles of small stones with tangential alignments of larger ones are common in the central Tyrone and E Fermanagh area, and at Beaghmore a group of these, together with about a dozen small cairns were uncovered during peat-cutting. More lie in the uncut peat-bog beyond. At present 7 circles and 9 rows can be seen - the stones of the rows being from a few centimetres to 1.8 metres high. Burials and kists were found in some of the cairns. One stone circle is filled with hundreds of small stones set upright. The find of a Neolithic bowl suggests that Neolithic occupation and cultivation preeded the erection of burial cairns and ceremonial circles and alignments: some irregular lines and heaps of boulders rsembling field-fences or field-clearance may predate the ritual structures. At some stage peat started to form over the site, and it may conceivably be that the cairns and rows were erected in a futile propitiatory attempt to restore fertility to the soil by attracting back the fading sun - for the significant alignment is not astronomical, but, as with wedge-tombs, towards the setting sun and the Land of the Dead.
~ 3.2 km S is Dunnamore wedge-tomb. ~ 6 km W is Dún Ruadh multiple-kist cairn.
~ 4.2 km SE in
Tulnacross
, in a field to the N of the road from Orritor to Dunnamore (H 705 804 - not marked on the map), is a pair of standing-stones. From a distance one appears to be pointed (male) and the other flat and grooved (female), but on approaching closer the 'male' one has a groove in it and the flat one turns out to be pointed - a prehistoric monument to sexual ambivalence, perhaps!
~ 3 kms NNE of Beaghmore in Davagh forest are Davagh Lower double stone circle, alignment of three stones, part of another stone circle, and (600 metres SW) a low wedge-tomb whose roofstones are still in place.
Clogherny : Stone circle and Wedge-tomb
On Meenerrigal Rocks, some two hundred metres up a slope to the E of the Plumbridge-Dunnamanagh road, a wedge-tomb with a straight façade and one surviving roofstone is set in a round cairn which is surrounded by a circle (18 metres in diameter) of low stones about 90 cms high.. The monument enshrines the various building-practices of the court-tomb, wedge-tomb and stone circle cultic traditions. ~ 1.7 km NNW is the court-tomb at Balix Lower.
Dún Ruadh: Multiple-kist cairn and henge
3 km NE of Greencastle and 800 metres NNE of Aghascrebagh ogam stone, over fields behind a farm in Crouck townland, to the E of a by-road and 450 metres E of the old school, this monument (whose name means "The Red Citadel", was much plundered to build the school. But the site remains impressive, comprising an oval kerbless cairn about 30 metres long, surrounded by a ditch and a low earthen bank. The cairn was built around an open cobbled area, lined by 17 orthostats in a circle, which were linked by dry-walling. There is a paved entrance on the SW. Thirteen kists were said to have been in the secondary surrounding cairn, some of them well-constructed, others merely improvised among the boulders of the cairn. A tree now grow in the central area. The Bronze Age monument is decidedly 'anomalous' and has affinities with both the passage-tomb at Sess Kilgreen and with the closed ring-cairns of NE Scotland.
~ There are remnants of a gallery-tomb in the adjacent field to the SW, and about 400 metres N, in Carnanransy , immediately S of the Greencastle-Draperstown road, are remains of a smll court-tomb with a semicircular court of 5 orthostats. ~ 9.6 km W by N of Dún Ruadh, immediately W of a by-road in Glenmacoffer are the two surving stones of a stone-row which until recently had three. They are slabs about 1.8 metres high and up to 1.5 metres high. ~ 6 km E are Beaghmore circles and stone-rows.
Dunnamore: Wedge-tomb
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Best approached via a lane (and across 2 fields to the E) leading from the road at the derelict police barracks, which are a few hundred metres W of a modern school in Dunnamore, this "Dermot and Grania's Bed" is impressive - despite a cart-track driven between the large stones of the double wall of the gallery and what seem to be the stones of the kerb (12 metres long). The gallery is about 8 metres long, and the main chamber is still roofedwith 3 large slabs. At the front of the tomb (facing SW) is an antechamber or portico which retains a roofstone and has a stone set between the entrance stones to form a double jamb - a feature of some other wedge-tombs in Tyrone. At either side of the dividing-stone are low sills. Some small chocking-stones also support the roofstone. A curious feature of the monument is a short line of stones running NW from the NW side of the gallery towards an enormous boulder.
~ 7.2 km SSW is Creggandevesky court-tomb (H 644 752) on a hill overlooking Lough Mallon. This tomb, which has an impressive entrance with massive lintel, is built at the head of a valley extending westward with excellent views (on a good day). A trapezoid cairn contains a three-chambered gallery with a court at the SE end. The edges of the cairn (18 metres long) are clearly defined by a dry-stone revetment along the E and W sides. Excavation showed that the back of the tomb was partially robbed in prehistoric times, and that it was built before the middle of the fourth millennium BCE. ~ 5.6 km S by W is another court-tomb at Cregganconroe (H 662 758) with massive portal-stones but few other stones of its shallow forecourt surviving. It leads into a two-chambered gallery, past a large fallen lintel. Behind the gallery are two lateral chambers opening symmetrically into each of the long sides of the cairn, which is 25 metres long and includes large boulders. Though roofless, these subsidiary chambers resemble small portal-tombs.
Knockmany: Passage-tomb
At the top of a hill in Knockmany Forest, approached vy a track leading from a car-park, this tomb has unfortunately been enclosed in concrete to protect the decorated stones from name-carvers and other vandals. Formerly known as "Annia's Cove" (corruption of
Grania's Cave
), it is open to visitors at certain times in the summer, and it may still be possible to obtain a key from Clogher police station. Three of the stones of this almost passageless tomb are covered with spirals, cup-marks, serpentines, concentric circles, etc.
~ 6.5 km ENE is another decorated passage-tomb at Sess Kilgreen .
Leitrim: Portal-tomb
In a field-fence to the E of a by-road, this megalith is remarkable for its large capstone (over 3 metres square) which contains nodules of gleaming white quartz. It is characteristically tilted to a height of 2.75 metres on portal-stones just 1 metre high, and would be more impressive without the field-fence. On top of the capstone are several depressions, some of which may be artificial.
~ 5.6 km NE at Berrysfort (H 272 838), approached by farm lanes and across a field is a handsome standing-stone 2.3 metres high, standing on a small eminence just S of the river Derg.
Loughash: Wedge-tombs and stone circle
Immediately N of a by-road 6.5 km SSW of Claudy, this complex monument (known locally as "Cashelbane" - The White Fort) overlaps the design or cult of court-tombs with that of wedge-tombs in having a vestigial semicircular forecourt facing south, and in being divided into 5 chambers, over which a single roofstone remains. These comprise an antechamber/portico with a double portal, a main chamber divided into two by 'skeleton jambs', and two compartments or kists separated from the main chamber by high orthostats. The double-walling is here linked to the gallery by transverse slabs. The roughly-circular cairn was surrounded by a ditch, suggesting that an older structure was destroyed. A small stone circle with tangential alignment lies less than 200 metres SE of the tomb. ~ 3.2 km W by S, in the same townland is "The Giant's Grave", another wedge-tomb with segmented chamber. The west-facing entrance is made double by an orthostat which bears 12 small cup-marks on its N side. ~ Almost 9 km NW is Cregg standing-stone, county Derry. ~ Some 13 km E by N is Tireighter wedge-tomb, county Derr y.
Sess Kilgreen: Passage-tomb
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Approached through a farm to the S of the Ballygawley-Omagh road a few hundred metres before Sess Kilgreen school, this monument is surrounded by bushes. Wellington boots are essential. Like
Knockmany
, 6.5 km WSW, this tomb is roofless and has no passage. Worn decoration can be seen on 2 of its stones, in the form of lozenges and superimposed concentric circles. In the next field (H 603 585) is a single slab 1.5 metres high - used by cattle as a rubbing-post - which is said to have been the (re-used ?) capstone of a chamber containing bones and 2 pots. It is covered with cup-marks, spirals, concentric circles, and flower-like motifs, and is divided diagonally by a row of cup-marks.
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