tombs ireland

The mounds are largely round, except Cairn E (a court-tomb) which is a long oval in shape, and the plans of the graves underneath them vary considerably. Cairns A and P contained nothing, while Cairns H and O had only some box-like cists. Most of the others represent variations on the classic Irish Passage-tomb form; a long passage leading into a chamber which has small chambers at each side and another at the back.

This is the case at Cairns E, G and K, and probably also C, M and N w...

In the parish of Abbeylara there are two well preserved remains of stone circles. There are also in this area surviving traces of what appear to be megalithic burials. There is no doubt of the antiquity of these stone circles and of their importance as archaelogical remains of the Bronze Age period of our history. They stand as memorials to those who recognised the sun as the centre of the universe, the source of all life....

Queen Maeve, the famous and fiery legendary Queen of Connacht, is said to have been buried in this great mound of stones 35 feet high and 200 feet in diameter, which is situated on the top of a hill with a magnificent view all around Co. Sligo. The mound probably hides a Passage-tomb underneath. Nearby are a number of rather ruined 'satellite' tombs, like those in the Boyne Valley....

Megalithic court grave. Take minor road south-east from Creggan towards Pomeroy. Always accessible....

It has a more than semicircular stone-paved forecourt, in which stone axes were found. Portals lead into the roofless burial chamber, placed in a long stone-revetted mound. Excavations in 1935 and again in 1975 showed that behind the chambered burial gallery there was a passage, originally timber-roofed, containing pits but also much cremated bone, suggesting that - unusually - the passage may well have been the location of the crematorium itself. A number of Neolithic pottery sherds and flin...

One of the most aesthetically satisfying megalithic structures of the Irish countryside, a 4,000 year-old Neolithic tomb that might equally be a work of modern sculpture. If proof were needed that Stone Age man built his monuments to impress as well as to last, then here it is. Its rugged geometry has long been admired, and illustrations of it have appeared in innumerable publications as well as in television commercials promoting tourism and butter. It was Fergusson who coined the term 'tripo...

A wedge-tomb in a mound of stones which was 4 feet high and 42 feet long. The tomb itself consists of a short entrance chamber, and a longer burial chamber behind it. Around the tomb itself there is a setting of stones placed in the form of a U. A mould for a bronze spear-head was found in the tomb, suggesting a date of about 100 B.C., but it may be even earlier than that....

One of the great wonders of the ancient world, Newgrange is older than Stonehenge, Mycenae or even the pyramids in Egypt. Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre is the starting point for a tour of Newgrange....

What may at first seem like a low dolmen on a hillock overlooking Loughin island lake at a cross-roads on the Seaforde-Crossgar road is, in fact, a large, low capstone resting on a number of smaller stones. These may once have been part of a passage-tomb, as an account of 1802 talks of it being beneath a cairn 60ft in diameter and having a lintelled passage approaching it....

A Stone Age megalithic tomb built possibly around 3000 B.C. consisting of a 'court' at the eastern end and a burial chamber which is dived into four parts....