Passage tombs, portal dolmens, and stone circles
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▶ VideoGrange stone circle (Irish: Lios na Gráinsí, meaning 'Fort of the Grange') is a stone circle in County Limerick, Ireland. It is located 300m west of Lough Gur, 4 km north of Bruff. The Limerick-Kilmallock road is nearby. It is estimated to be 4,000-years-old, dating from the Bronze Age.
▶ VideoAideen's Grave is a collapsed megalithic dolmen (or cromlech) located in the grounds of Howth Castle in County Dublin, Ireland.
The Legananny Dolmen is a megalithic dolmen or cromlech nine miles southeast of Banbridge and three miles north of Castlewellan, both in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the slopes of Slieve Croob near the village of Leitrim in Drumgooland parish, between a farmer's stone wall and a back road. It is a State Care Historic Monument sited in the townland of Legananny, in Banbridge District, at grid ref: J2887 4339. This tripod dolmen has a capstone over 3 m (10 ft) long and 1.8 m (6 ft) from the ground. It dates to the Neolithic period, making the monument around 5,000 years old. Such portal tombs were funerary sites for the disposal of the dead in Neolithic society. The heavy stones would have been dragged some distance before being set in place. The three supporting stones are unusually long and there are slight traces of a cairn which must have been far more extensive. Some urns were found underneath. The name Legananny is derived from Irish Liagán Áine 'Áine's standing stone'.
Newgrange (Irish: Sí an Bhrú) is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, placed on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, eight kilometres (five miles) west of the town of Drogheda. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3100 BC, making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. Newgrange is the main monument in the Brú na Bóinne complex, a World Heritage Site that also includes the passage tombs of Knowth and Dowth, as well as other henges, burial mounds and standing stones. Newgrange consists of a large circular mound with an inner stone passageway and cruciform chamber. Burnt and unburnt human bones and possible grave goods or votive offerings were found in this chamber. The monument has a striking façade made mostly of white quartz cobblestones and ringed by engraved kerbstones. Many of the larger stones of Newgrange are covered in megalithic art. The mound is also ringed by a stone circle. Some of the material that makes up the monument came from as far as the Mournes and Wicklow Mountains. There is no agreement on its purpose, but it is believed to have had religious significance. It is aligned so that the rising sun on the winter solstice shines through a "roofbox" above the entrance and floods the inner chamber. Several other passage tombs in Ireland are aligned with solstices and equinoxes, and Cairn G at Carrowkeel has a similar "roofbox". Newgrange shares similarities with some other Neolithic monuments in Western Europe; especially Gavrinis in Brittany, which has a similar preserved facing and large carved stones, Maeshowe in Orkney, with its large corbelled chamber, and Bryn Celli Ddu in Wales. Its initial period of use lasted around 1,000 years. Newgrange then gradually became a ruin, although the area continued to be a site of ritual activity. It featured in Irish mythology and folklore, in which it is said to be a dwelling of the deities, particularly The Dagda and his son Aengus. Antiquarians first began its study in the seventeenth century, and archaeological excavations began in the twentieth century. Archaeologist Michael O'Kelly led the most extensive of these from 1962 to 1975 and also reconstructed the front of the monument, a controversial reconstruction. This included an inward-curving dark stone wall to ease visitor access. Newgrange is a popular tourist site and, according to archaeologist Colin Renfrew, is "unhesitatingly regarded by the prehistorian as the great national monument of Ireland" and as one of the most important megalithic structures in Europe.
Knockmany passage tomb, or Anya's Cove, is an ancient burial monument on the summit of Knockmany Hill, near the village of Augher in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the remains of a Neolithic passage tomb and its stones are decorated with rare megalithic art. They are protected by a concrete chamber and mound, built in 1959 by the then Ministry of Finance for Northern Ireland, roughly resembling the mound that would have originally covered it. The stones can be viewed through the entrance gates. It is a monument in state care.
Ballykeel Dolmen is a Neolithic tripod portal tomb and a State Care Historic Monument at the foot of the western flank of Slieve Gullion in Northern Ireland. It is located above a tributary of the Forkhill river, in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area, at grid ref: H9950 2132. The dolmen sits at the southern end of a large cairn, of approximately 30x10 metres, the north end of which also contains a cist. Its three metre long capstone, with a notable notch similar to that of Legananny Dolmen, had previously fallen, but was re-set during excavations in 1963. The granite capstone is balanced on the tips of the three portal stones. Excavations of the chamber revealed different types of pottery, including three highly decorated "Ballyalton" bowls, and the cist contained several hundred sherds of Neolithic pottery, a javelin head, and three flint flakes. High levels of phosphates found in the chambers floor is an indication of ancient burials. Nearby is Ballymacdermott Court Tomb.
Knowth (; Irish: Cnóbha) is a prehistoric tomb overlooking the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland. It comprises a large passage tomb surrounded by 17 smaller tombs, built during the Neolithic era around 3200 BC. It contains the largest assemblage of megalithic art in Europe. Knowth is part of the Brú na Bóinne complex, a World Heritage Site that also includes the similar passage tombs of Newgrange and Dowth. After its initial period of use, Knowth gradually became a ruin, although the area continued to be a site of ritual activity in the Bronze Age. During the early Middle Ages, a royal residence was built on top of the great mound, which became the seat of the Kings of Knowth or Northern Brega. Archaeologist George Eogan led an extensive investigation of the site from the 1960s to 1980s, and parts of the monument were reconstructed.
The Bocan Stone Circle is a stone circle situated near the village of Culdaff in the north of Inishowen, a peninsula on the north coast of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland.
Dowth (Irish: Dubhadh) is the site of Neolithic passage tombs near the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland. It is one of the three main tombs of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site, along with Newgrange and Knowth. Its features align it with the other passage tombs, which date from around 3200 BC. Unlike its neighbours, Dowth has mostly been left as a ruin, although its smaller inner chambers are largely intact. The Royal Irish Academy carried out a botched excavation in 1847, leaving a large crater in the mound that has never been repaired.
Kealkill stone circle is a Bronze Age axial five-stone circle located just outside the village of Kealkill, County Cork in southwest Ireland. When it was excavated in 1938 it was thought the crucial axial stone indicated an alignment to the north, contrary to the general alignment of such stone circles to the southwest. However, later archaeologists have thought it is the comparatively insignificant stone to the southwest that is the axial stone. There are two associated standing stones nearby, one of which had fallen and was re-erected in 1938.
Poulnabrone dolmen (Irish: Poll na Brón, lit. 'Hole of the Quernstone') is a large dolmen (or cromlech, a type of single-chamber portal tomb) located in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland. Situated on one of the region's most desolate and highest points, it comprises three standing portal stones supporting a heavy horizontal capstone and dates to the early Neolithic period, with estimates from 3800 and 3200 BC. Although not the largest, it is the best known of the approximately 172 dolmens in Ireland. It was constructed on a unique karst landscape formed from limestone laid down around 350 million years ago. The dolmen was built by Neolithic farmers, choosing the location either for ritual, as a territorial marker, or as a collective burial site. What remains today is only the "stone skeleton" of the original monument; originally, it would have been covered with soil, and its flagstone capped by a cairn. When the site was excavated in 1986 and again in 1988, around 33 human remains, including those of adults and children (including the remains of a much later Bronze Age infant), were found buried underneath it. Researchers also discovered various stone and bone objects that would have been placed with the dead at the time of interment. The human remains and objects are estimated to have been buried intermittently during the 600-year period between 3800 and 3200 BC.
The Calf House or Druid's Altar is a portal tomb or dolmen in Burren Forest, County Cavan, Ireland. It dates from Neolithic times. It is located close to the Giant's Leap wedge tomb.
Lisnadarragh Wedge Tomb is a prehistoric site, a wedge tomb about 16 kilometres (10 mi) west of Carrickmacross, in County Monaghan near the border with County Cavan, in Ireland.
Drombeg stone circle (also known as The Druid's Altar) is a small axial stone circle located 2.4 km (1.5 mi) east of Glandore, County Cork, Ireland. Although not an especially significant example, Drombeg is one of the most visited megalithic sites in Ireland, and is protected under the National Monuments Act. It was excavated in 1958, when the cremated remains of an adolescent were found in a pot in the circle's centre.
Ballynoe Stone Circle is a complex multi-phase site, meaning its use spans multiple periods of human history. It is believed to be some 5,000 years old dating from the late Neolithic (around 3000 BC) into the Early Bronze Age (itself two millennia from 2500 – 500 BC). The stone circle located near the village of Ballynoe, County Down in Northern Ireland is one of around 1,300 recorded stone circles in Ireland, Britain and Brittany remaining today....
The Beltany stone circle is a Bronze Age stone circle just south of Raphoe town in County Donegal, Ireland. It dates from around 2100-700 BC. There is evidence that it may also have been the sacred site of Neolithic monuments, possibly early passage tombs. It overlooks the now destroyed passage tomb complex at Kilmonaster and Beltany is dominated by Croghan Hill to the east on the summit of which there sits a Neolithic mound most likely a passage tomb (though never excavated). Beltany is 145 feet across and has 64 stones (originally there would have been at least 80 stones) of varying height and width enclosing an earthen platform. The stones are large with some more than 6 feet in height. The centre is greatly disturbed and most likely was the result of digging by locals in the 1700s for available loose stones to build farmsteads and field boundaries. This evidence was given orally to the Ordnance Survey field officers in 1830s which is written into the OS records. It states that locals recalled the removal of vast heaps of stone and sepulchral type graves with bones. The boulder wall close to the circle may support this evidence and the mention in OS early maps of ‘Tops Village’ at the foot of the hill. The enigmatic Stone Circle is situated on the summit of Tops Hill, the anglicized Gaelic word meaning ‘the lighting of a ceremonial torch’. Several stones are cupmarked. One in particular, the triangle stone on NE is decorated with circular incisions or cup marks visible to naked eye. Other stones have what appears to be replicated star constellations. The heavy stones on NW lean outwards possibly from pressure of the earlier debris and boulders removed in 1700s or due to depletion of earthen bank. This was a ritual site associated with marking the agricultural Celtic year – the summer and winter Solstices and Equinox. The Celtic Ritual Year was in 4 parts – Beltaine (May), Samhain (November) the main parts and Imbolg (February) and Lughnasa (August). Beltany may be linked to marking both sunrise and sunset at these important ritual and ceremonial events in the year. It may also have a lunar orientation, yet to be calculated. A single ‘outlier’ stone about 2 metres high stands to the southeast of the circle. It probably had some function related to the rituals or ceremonies in the circle. Or it may be one of the several line standing stones found in fields around the slopes of Tops hill and valley. A carved stone head (flat to back) is believed to have come from lands around Beltany and thought to have functioned as either a mask or a mould from which ceremonial masks were fashioned in bronze or even gold. It is in the vaults at the National Museum in Dublin. These megaliths indicate that this landscape was marked out and used as a sacred and ritual site for several millennia. It has been suggested that the name of the site is linked to the Celtic festival of fertility known as 'Beltane', the anglicised name for the Gaelic May Day festival, commonly held on 1 May and historically, widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Irish the name for the festival day is Lá Bealtaine, in Scottish Gaelic Là Bealltainn and in Manx Gaelic Laa Boaltinn/Boaldyn.
Cohaw is a Neolithic double court tomb located 4 kilometres south-east of Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland. The tomb lies on a ridge overlooking a small tributary of the River Annalee which flows into Lough Oughter.
The Piper's Stones or the Athgreany stone circle is a Bronze Age stone circle at Athgreany, County Wicklow. It sits on a low hillock overlooking the N81, 2 km south of Hollywood.
Punchestown Longstone is a menhir (standing stone) and national monument near Naas in Ireland.
Castleruddery Stone Circle is a recumbent stone circle and National Monument located in County Wicklow, Ireland.
Fourknocks Passage Tomb is a passage grave and National Monument located in County Meath, Ireland.
The Knockeen Portal Tomb is a megalith in Knockeen, County Waterford, Ireland. It is the largest dolmen (portal tomb) in County Waterford exhibiting a double capstone configuration, though it is not the tallest standing stone structure. It is one of the finest examples of a dolmen in Ireland.
Knockroe Passage Tomb is a prehistoric site, of the Neolithic period, in the townland of Knockroe in County Kilkenny, Ireland, about 10 km north of Carrick-on-Suir. It is known locally as "The Caiseal". It is National Monument no. 655, managed by the Office of Public Works on behalf of the state.
Proleek Dolmen is a dolmen (portal tomb) and national monument in County Louth, Ireland.