tombs ireland

A Passage-tomb under a mound of stones. The chamber is approached with two stones bearing concentric diamond-like motifs resembling the human face. The burial chamber has two side-chambers on each side and one at the back. One roof stone of the chamber near the entrance bears a decoration consisting of five lines. The corbelled roof of the chamber is incomplete, and entrance is most commonly effected through a hole in the top of it. The grave has probably been open for a long time, as an Ear...

This 'classic' example of a dual court-tomb overlooks Strangford Lough almost 6 miles north-east of Downpatrick. The basic unit of a forecourt giving access to a gallery divided into four burial chambers is repeated at each end of a long, wedge-shaped mound, so that the two individual units almost but do not quite meet back to back near the centre of the mound. A minimum of 17 individuals were found buried in each gallery, but all were disarticulated in such a way as to suggest that they must...

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...

The 'Royal County' of Meath boasts a dramatic history and proud heritage that no other country can match. Man has settled here for over 8,000 years and everywhere one turns one can see surviving monuments and relics scattered profusely beside the rolling rivers and on the lush plains. Formerly one of the five historic provinces of Ireland, it was from here that the ancient roads of Ireland radiated, spreading Royal Meath's influence and affluence to all the corners of Ireland....

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...

Easily accessible along pathways, the latter stands at an altitude of 720 ft in the clearing of a forestry plantation which provides a splendid view across undisturbed countryside towards a great table mountain to the south-west. The tomb consists of a burial gallery subdivided into four chambers flanked at each end by a roughly semicircular forecourt. Excavations in 1938 produced a combination of Stone and Bronze Age finds including pottery and flint, while the only bones which could be ident...

A neat example of a wedge-tomb; it was excavated in 1957. The long rectangular burial chamber has two tall stones marking the entrance and was surrounded by a double row of stones placed in the shape of a U.

The tomb was covered by a mound of stones, the edges of which were marked by small standing stones.
The entrance facade of the tomb was straight, and in front of it lay a semicircular arrangement of stones. Some burned bones were found during the excavations....

One of the most spectacular megalithic tombs of the distinctive south Leinster group, a stately Neolithic mausoleum, 'remarkable', to quote Borlase, 'for its solidity, and the perfect carrying out of a unity of design'. As a scheduled National Monument it is entitled to better care than it currently receives. 'It stands neglected in a corner of the disused burial ground of Kilburrin, 4 miles south-south-west of Waterford city, its great lichen encrusted stones emerging from a tangle of overgrow...

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...

A wedge-shaped megalithic tomb with a rectangular chamber divided into three unequal parts, and set into a wedge-shaped cairn bounded by standing stones, and the whole placed in a double-walled U-shaped setting of large stones.
Cremated bone and pottery were found inside. The date of the tomb has been assigned to the Early Bronze Age (c.1700 B. C)....