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Visited 21.04.22

West Cairngaan Stone has been given a spring clean since my last visit in 2011. All of the field clearance stones have been removed leaving West Cairngaan Stone high and dry on a E-W rocky earth plinth. It is visible from the West Tarbet Path which starts at West Cairngaan Farm. Follow the path E then turn S to reach a gate at NX 13093 31346. West Cairngaan Stone is located in an arable field c. 200 yards E of the gateway.

Anthony Weir, in his Early Ireland: A Field Guide, published in 1980, mentions that this is across the road from the court tomb. He must have seen it in its original environment back then. It’s now in An Creagán Visitors Centre in Tyrone, about 12 kilometres to the south-west.

Behind the centre is a small duck pond and a kids’ playground. To the right of the pond a set of steps rises on the right and brings you on a number of looped walks through the bogland. To the left of the steps, almost tucked into the bank, is the reconstructed tomb.

An extensive excavation was undertaken before dismantling the tomb and if you compare it to the old photograph (link below) you can see that they remained faithful to the original. It’s actually a quite impressive little monument, with all its sidestones, a backstone and two roofstones, with a ruined antechamber, but is, I would imagine, now used as a climbing frame for the energetic sprogs that populate the locale.

West of the village of the same name, down a country lane and up on a drumlin ridge, is this small relic. It’s like the opening of a day, an invitation to explore further and deeper, little over a metre tall, its fallen neighbour invisible to the south. North from the prominence, above the Creggan boglands, the Sperrins float invitingly. The climb has taken the breath out of me on this, my first venture out of the car since Batterstown. I didn’t touch it, satisfied enough to view, and to anticipate what lay ahead.