tombs ireland

A magnificent, well presented full-court tomb, restored after excavation in 1935 and protected by a modern wall. One of the more accessible monuments of its type, it is situated at the rear of a cottage on the east side of the Bundoran-Sligo road, near the hamlet of Creevykeel. The long cairn is wedge-shaped and tapers sharply towards the west. The court, 50 feet in length, has straight sides and shallow curved ends. It is entered by an orthostat-lined passageway on the east. At the wes...

Together with Knowth and Newgrange, this mound forms part of the great Passage-tomb cemetery beside the lower stretches of the Boyne. The mound has a diameter of 280 feet and is 50 feet high. A number of the stones surrounding the bottom of the mound can still be seen, some of them bearing ornamentation. There are two prehistoric tombs in the western part of the mound, dating from about 3000 B.C. One of these is reached by climbing down a ladder in an iron cage; it has a long passage, with so...

There may have been an early Christian monastery in the valley where, according to tradition, St. Colmcille banished demons who enveloped the valley in a fog. The most conspicuous remains are the pillars decorated with cross-motifs and geometric designs which are now the  'stations of the cross' of the pilgrimage which takes place on the Saint's feastday on June 9th. The pillars are spread over an area in the valley 3.5 miles long and the pilgrimage takes as many hours to complete.
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Sadly, land clearance in the 18 or 19th century removed the northern half of the monument, roughly down its central axis, and what can be made out from the obscuring clutter of field-wall stones is the southern half of the eastern forecourt and its accompanying double-chambered gallery, as well as the southern part of the forecourt of the western tomb. Excavations in 1937 revealed a black layer in the eastern forecourt containing burnt bone and pottery sherds, and covering further Neolithic pot...

Borlase graphically described this rather ungainly portal-tomb as 'a sphinx-like monster, advancing out of a rocky hill on some half-dozen short and rickety legs'. Its unusual shape immediately draws the eye, and it stands out boldly in a field which has many natural formations of large boulders. The 40-ton capstone is 22 feet long and covers an elongated chamber which yielded coarse Neolithic pottery. Immediately behind the tomb is a raised rocky ledge, and it has been suggested that the...

The surviving burial chamber, roughly pentagonal in shape, would have been approached originally through a passage, of which little remains. Four of the upright stones of the chamber bear decorative motifs, including concentric circles, lozenges, zigzags and triangles, which resemble those found in the passage-tombs on the Loughcrew Hills in Co. Meath. Like them Knockmany probably dates from around 3000-2500 B.C. The chamber is now protected and locked within the (reconstructed) earthen mound...

Carrowkeel, in the Bricklieve hills, is an ancient cemetery of circular mounds dating from the late Stone Age (2500-200BC).

There are some splendid views from the exposed hilltop site....

A large well-preserved court-tomb with a more than semicircular forecourt formed of large boulders, and located on a ridge 700 feet high with a fine view ofer the Bann valley. Behind the forecourt is a broad burial-gallery of two separate chambers, with one set of jambs immediately inside the portal stones and a further set dividing the gallery which still carry their ponderous capstone. The kerb of the mound is still well defined by upright stones, and within it - and behind the chamber - is...

Rising like a bird about to take off from the karst limestone of the Burren, it attracts by its timeless simplicity, and consists of a very few upright stones (including, now, a necessary modern replacement) supporting a large flat capstone which rises from the back towards the front of the tomb. It is surrounded by a low mound, largely made up of stones, but it seems unlikely ever to have covered the whole monument. Disarticulated bones of 16 adults and children, equally divided between the s...

Follow the signs for Carrowkeel, west of the village is Castlebaldwin, as the tar road gives way to a grassy track the stark, jutting cliff faces before you have a cathedral majesty which must have held a magic for the great Stone Age architects of these remarkable tombs. You leave the car at the apex of this track and climb by foot the short distance to the top of Bricklieve Mountain. All but one of the cairns you see scattered over the hillside are passage graves; the other covers a court to...