With its own parking spot and two information boards Legananny dolmen is a well-known tourist draw in the mid-Down area. However, it is in a quite isolated spot, well off the beaten track and is generally quiet and peaceful.
The tripod dolmen misnomer (were they ever meant to be viewed as we see them today?) is shared with Ballykeel in South Armagh not too far away and comparisons are hard to avoid. I find Legananny more satisfying, even though the setting is a tad more claustrophobic with the farm buildings so close by.
The view south down the lane towards the Mournes was spectacular today, the sculpture (for what else could you describe it as?) taking on all sorts of shapes and characteristics as I moved around it. Denuded as it is it still retains a power and majesty all its own, mysterious and captivating. I stayed a while, managing to forget the pressures of a busy life, lost in appreciation, and awestruck by the beauty of it all.
It is so beautifully balanced that the upper stone, though of enormous weight, can be easily rocked by pushing it with an umbrella. ... I think it is one of the finest cromlechs I have seen. --- Annesley.
That's Lord Annesley to you, showing off his photographs of the cromlech on his land near Castlewellan. From the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Mar., 1895).
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Posted by Rhiannon
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