dolmens ireland

A Dolmen with three stones still supporting a capstone. A fourth stone which originally supported the capstone lees nearby....

One of a small group of portal tombs which have two capstones 9others include Knockeen in Waterford, Kilmogue in Kilkenny and the Kempe Stones in Down). Like many 'dolmens' it stands in a hollow, so that the visitor's initial view of it is from above. The main capstone is 9 feet long and rests at the front on the single remaining portal stone, 6 feet high, on which a small Christian cross has been inscribed, apparently recently. The lower capstone is supported on the chamber uprights and, as i...

Its capstone is supported by three uprights, but on e of these-and the capstone-were erected in the 19th century to make it look like a dolmen. However, the monument itself is genuinely Stone Age, for two of the uprights supporting the capstone are the portals of the forecourt of a court-tomb of around 3000 B.C., which gave access to a burial chamber of three sections in a cairn bordered with kerb-stones. Easier to find than this court-tomb, which is known locally as the Broad Stone, is anothe...

A field monument of huge proportions, the capstone is believed to be the largest in Europe. The location, setting and purpose of this Megalithic structure have been the subject of conjecture for centuries. Most likely it marks the burial place of a local king of long ago but has been invested with a rich overylay of myth and legend....

Its largest stone is the enormous capstone which has fallen sideways, revealing the megalithic chamber it once covered, in which a cremation urn and a flint arrowhead were found in 1834. Stones standing independently at the eastern side of the monument suggest that it may once have had a forecourt facade like a court-tomb....

This dolmen has two portal stones supporting a massive granite capstone which is estimated to weigh about 35 tons. The tomb, built around 3000-2500 B.C., stands near the northern end of a long rectangular stone cairn. Excavations long ago apparently uncovered bone, Neolithic pottery and flint....

The Ballylumford Dolmen is better known to locals as the Druid's Altar and is a dolmen typical of many found in Ulster and throughout Ireland. Larne used to be called "the port of the Standing Stones" by the Romans, no doubt because of the presence of dolmens like this one and the numberous standing stones and boundary marker stones which can still be seen across the borough. The dolmen, under which historical artifacts have been recovered by archaeologists, would appear to have stood over a b...

This dramatic granite dolmen consists of three comparatively thin and widely spaced uprights. They carry a large and seemingly almost weightless capstone which - appropriately enough for a Stone Age burial place - looks rather like a coffin on stilts. It is one of Ireland's most frequently illustrated dolmens....

A splendid 'tripod-dolmen', 12 feet in height, standing at the edge of a field near a ruined gallery-tomb. It is reached by a signposted path from the grounds of Ballymascanlon Hotel. It has long been called 'The Giant's Load' since, from a certain viewpoint, it resembles a huge figure bowed under the weight of a heavy burden - in this case a rounded granite capstone weighing in excess of 30 tons. This well known landmark has often been illustrated. As early as 1742 an engraving of it appear...

A very fine example of a Portal Dolmen in the grounds of the Ballymascanlon Hotel, and with a capstone of about 40 tons supported by three legs. Legend says that a wish will be granted to those who can throw a pebble on to the top of the capstone so that it stays there. In the same field is a wedge-tomb....