tombs ireland

Annaghmare is one of the best built of all the court-tombs in Ulster. High quality masonry can be seen in the horizontal drystone walling between the uprights of the more than semicircular forecourt, which leads into a long triple-chambered burial gallery. The stone mound surrounding this gallery was later extended to enclose two further burial chambers entered from the side of the cairn.

Careful excavations in 1963-64 produced the inhumed remains of two individuals and the cremated bo...

In this great mound about 40 feet high and 220 feet in diameter two great Passage-tombs were discovered in 1967 and 1968. One of the chambers is corbelled, like that at Newgrange, and is round and has side-chambers; the other has a flat roof and looks like little more than a widening of the passage. Both graves are richly decorated with megalithic art, as are also many of the kerbstones surrounding the base of the large mound. The entrances to the tombs were considerably disturbed in the Earl...

Although partly collapsed on its supports and overgrown with bracken and scrub, this is nonetheless a noble megalith.

when complete it would have stood 15 feet high at the chamber entrance, where there now survives only the broken portion of one of the great portal stones, against which the massy capstone leans, its other end resting on the ground. A second portal stone nearly 15 feet long, lies fallen alongside.

Borlase believed this to be a distinct class of tomb - an...

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...

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...

This well-preserved megalithic tomb lies in the saddle of two hilltops. The long passage of the tomb extends to a chamber that expands inwards. The way that the roof stones rise to the top of this chamber like stairs is similar to those built in Brittany. It is believed that a large mound of earth originally covered these graves....

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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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....

A megalithic tomb consisting of a rectangular chamber and what seems like a forecourt. The forecourt wall is made of drystone walling. The unusual feature of this tomb is the stone blocking the entrance to the tomb, at the bottom of which is a 'port hole' - presumably to allow subsequent burials to take place. The whole is surrounded by the remains of a cairn 60 feet long, The tomb was excavated, but the results were never published....

This picturesquely situated wedge-tomb preserves many of the classic features of the type. The tapered form is well defined, as is the double walling of the segmented gallery, partially covered by a large flat roof-slab. A door-stone closes the tomb entrance, which faces west. There is some indication of the existence of a cairn. The monument stands by the roadside at the north-east corner of Lough Nahaltora and was in the past resorted to as a holy well by local people.
Wedge-tombs were...