creggandeveskey court tomb

The monument's true nature as a court-tomb of c.3500 B.C. was only revealed during excavations in 1979-82, which removed the peat that had helped to preserve what turned out to be one of the most complete examples of its kind, and ensured its survival. The trapezoidal stone cairn over 50 feet long has a semicircular forecourt at its eastern end, at the centre of which a portal covered by a mighty capstone gave access to a triple-chambered burial gallery which had originally been roofed with corbelled slabs.

That Creggandeveskey is only one of at least half a dozen such tombs in the vicinity may seem surprising, but we must presume that warmer weather 5,000 years ago allowed agriculture to be practised to a much greater degree - and also at a higher altitude - than would be possible in the area nowadays, thus supporting a Stone Age population of some size which would have been capable of building such large tombs and burying its dead within.