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County Antrim: Latest Posts |
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Ossian's Grave (Court Tomb) — Fieldnotes |
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Two kilometres north-west of Cushendall is Ossian’s Grave court tomb in Lubitavish townland. The track that leads up to the site crosses the Glenaan river. Ossian’s Grave is sited on the eastern end of Glenaan glen’s southern side. We parked at the house/B&B 200 metres up the track and knocked to ask for permission. No one in the house so we headed on up. The hill is quite steep but easy going, beginning to get overgrown in late summer. The field with the tomb has its own kissing gate and there’s the memorial to John Hewitt just inside of this. Then you see the grave, 100 metres into the field, and it seems to be perfectly placed on the prow of a slight ridge coming down from the mountain of Tievebulliagh, with its axe factory under cliffs 200 metres higher up. The remains are all quite low for a court tomb, but no less compelling for that. The court is shallow and seems more embracing as a consequence. The two-chambered gallery is bisected by a pair of matching jambs and is maybe 3 metres in overall length. The views north-east up through Glencorp and towards Cushendun were calling us with the promise of more megalithic adventures up in Ballyvennaght. Ossian’s Grave was a good place to start. |
Posted by ryaner18th September 2021ce |
Ballynagloch (Standing Stones) — Fieldnotes |
| Just beyond the western end of the megalithic wonderland that lies north of the road from Ballyvoy to Torr Head is this odd pair of stones, possibly part of a larger stone row. The stone that you first meet as you walk up from the gate is a magnificent Obelix-dimensioned menhir, almost 3 and a half metres tall. It’s not often that I indulge in a bout of stone-hugging but this one is irresistible, its surroundings probably adding to my sudden melancholy sentimentality. Its amigo at the other end of the church was quite possibly of equal stature, once upon a time, but not now – it seems to have been broken at some stage and is quite deformed, especially when compared to its buddy. Once again, I discovered more information about a site after I had returned and read up a bit more. Must do better. |
Posted by ryaner 17th September 2021ce |
Ballyvennaght (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Fieldnotes |
| About 400 metres east of north of the double portal tomb in the same townland, this is a mighty fine standing stone. Isolated on its own hill, rushes and and marsh grasses almost inundate it, but not quite – it’s 1.8 metres tall. If you were in the vicinity, it’s well worth checking out – the views all around are fine, though the day we were there, low cloud dominated and horizons were shorter. |
Posted by ryaner 17th September 2021ce |
Ballyvennaght (Portal Tomb) — Fieldnotes |
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This is not the easiest site to access. I had Fourwind’s guidebook with me in the car but neglected to read his directions for no good reason other than being scatterbrained and convinced an approach from Ballycastle Forest car park would be best. We had been in the vicinity a week earlier and had scouted the area a bit and this seemed the best. There were a few fences to traverse but sure when has that ever stopped us? A track heads east and then south from the car park and skirts the edge of the forest. As the track enters the trees we headed up east along the edge of the forest through a couple of rough pasture fields. The two-dimensionality of the maps and satellite photos never prepares you for what’s ahead so the clomp up the increasingly boggy terrain was challenging if not wholly surprising. Once we’d reached the ridge and traversed the last fence we turned south and headed towards the monument. There was no immediate sign of the tomb from 150 metres away. The floor of the chambers of this double portal tomb is nestled 2 metres below the ground level of a peat bog. As we got nearer, the top of the western capstone appeared and then, closer in again, it becomes readily apparent that this is an extraordinary monument. We first skirted around the western end where the better of the two chambers is. There’s not much room at the front of the chamber, sealed as it is with a half-height doorstone. The southern sidestone has been removed and the remaining 4 stones keep the massive capstone propped up, though it seems to have slipped a bit towards the rear. The eastern tomb, 20 metres from the western, is completely flattened. The capstone, 3.5 metres square, rests on the collapsed chamber stones. Mooching around the place I wondered what direction was the eastern tomb aligned – in the same direction as the western? But that would mean the entrance faced into the cairn. Cairn material is visible between the two chambers. So did the eastern chamber entrance face east? Of all the many monuments in the large townland of Ballyvennaght, this is the best. I can’t imagine you would ever meet anyone around here – even the sheep seem to give it a wide berth. There are two more portal tombs here, plus a wedge and a court and a nice standing stone. Visiting all of these in one day would be a serious challenge, but now that I’ve been to them all but one, I think I know the best way to attempt it. |
Posted by ryaner 16th September 2021ce |
Ballyvennaght (Portal Tomb) — Fieldnotes |
| The worst of the three portal tombs in Bellyvennaght townland, we reached here from the double portal that's about 850 metres to the south-west. As can be seen from the photos, the journey across the difficult, boggy terrain was barely worth it... and yet, what else would I be doing? It's probably never going to be on many peoples' agenda, and is therefore under possible threat through neglect and indifference, so in the end, on reflection, I'm glad we made the effort. |
Posted by ryaner 6th September 2021ce |
Carnanmore (Passage Grave) — Fieldnotes |
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On a fourth visit to north-east Antrim this summer, we set our sights firmly on the cairn on Knocklayd and here, the passage tomb of Carnanmore on East Torr. Three times we had scouted the approach, once even contemplating a shot at it from the west at Ballyvennaght, the saturated, boggy terrain and the low, misty, drizzly cloud dissuading us from our madness. Tom Fourwinds, in Monu-Mental about Prehistoric Antrim, suggests parking at the road junction a kilometre-and-a-half north of the tomb and just below the passage tomb on West Torr and to approach Carnanmore from there. Sage advice, but we’d decided to stick to tombs relatively close to the road on our first trip (excepting Ballygilbert), not being very familiar with the locale, and then, on the following two trips, low cloud and sea mist acted like the curtains of a stage, teasing us but never opening. Not today. Having earlier summited Knocklayd we decided to follow our plan and make for East Torr, this after watching the low cloud doing a dance around its cairn before finally evaporating in the midday sun. It was a different day to that on our first trip when there was not a cloud in sight nor any haze to obscure the thrilling views. This time Kintyre, Islay and Jura were hidden and Rathlin, scarcely 10 kms to the north, only partially visible. Leaving the car at the aforementioned junction, we vaulted the gate and set off. It’s at or around the 255 metre contour with the summit at 379 metres, so a gentle 134 metres gain over a kilometre and a half, directly south. The first half a kilometre is relatively easy, grass-covered and firm. There are two fences to surmount, but both have stiles, the first signalling a change in terrain to boggier, heavier ground. After a while a north/south fence appears on your right – it was too tempting not to stick with this and, as it turns out, it points directly at the tomb. The cairn emerges on the sightline about 300 metres away as you approach from the north. Excitement and anticipation start to really kick in here. I knew from Fourwind’s book and other writings that Carnanmore is special but nothing really prepared me for just how magnificent it actually is. The last fence hurdled as if it wasn’t there, the top of the tomb is hard to resist. I deliberately took my time, trying to slow the experience, but the first surprise of the site is immediate, the spirals on the stone behind the capstone readily apparent in the sunshine. A judicious splash of water revealed the delicate and very worn designs even further. The cupmarks on the next stone to the south are also readily visible. The cairn is actually quite steep-sided. There are no traces of a kerb that I could see, but surely the combination of slippage and deliberate robbing has led to the top of the chamber being exposed. Entrance into the tomb was gained by removing the eastern, front portion of the chamber as it met the passage, the passage now filled with cairn rubble, its roofstones having been removed and thrown about the place. The chamber floor is accessed by clambering down the rubble in the passage. The removal of the front part of the chamber has exposed the magnificent corbelling in cross-section, the delicate nature of which seems to continue to exist due to the relative isolation of the location. Looking front-on at this and below, on the passage rubble, the two stones that support the capstone look like a winged spectre, guardian of the monument perhaps, demanding continued respect. The southern wall of the chamber looks to be deteriorating, with a void appearing behind the bottom orthostat and the corbelling it supports. It brought to mind the precarious state of the walls around the neck of the passage in Seefin in Wicklow. Standing in the chamber looking out I wanted the passage to align directly onto the cairn on Knocklayd. It doesn’t. It’s possible Carnanmore has a summer solstice sunset alignment and it’s also possible that its construction predates Knocklayd, neither of which matters to us today. In the late summer sunshine my companion took a nap at the back of the mound. From there the terrain falls precipitously away towards the sea down at Torr Head. Try as we might we couldn’t make out Kintyre, the mass of which seemed like just a stones throw away from West Torr back in early July on our first visit. Sitting here writing this now, on reflection, a visit here was a good, if unplanned, way to bookend our Antrim adventures. And once again, a shout-out to Tom Fourwinds (Ian Thompson) for leading the way. |
Posted by ryaner 2nd September 2021ce |
Carnanmore (Passage Grave) — Images (click to view fullsize) |
   
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Posted by ryaner 30th August 2021ce |
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