Heapstown is not as roadside a cairn as I had expected from previous reading. It's close to the road but you'll need to enter the field with the Sligo Heritage signpost and approach the cairn from there.
Heapstown brought to mind the 3 other cairns of similar size that I've visited: Ballymacgibbon, Knocknarea (Maeve's Cairn) and Cairn D on Carnbane west in Loughcrew. Most every mention of Heapstown includes the probability of it being a passage grave, but given the Cairn D experience, and the fact that the stolen material mentioned by Gladman has so far revealed no signs of a passage entrance, I'd say the possibility is way less than 50 50.
This is a massive construction though. The kerbstones on south-east side are impressive, bulky and robust and a major job to erect in themselves. The pile of the cairn must contain the field-clearance of 100 acres or more.
I'd love to see this monument opened up a bit, some of the vegetation cut back, revealing it in all its grandeur.
Megalithically-minded visitors to Lough Arrow and its environs - a most beautiful part of Ireland, it has to be said - are quite rightly captivated by the great Carrowkeel cairns crowning the Bricklieve Mountains. These are a 'must visit', if ever there was one. Other visitors, not so inclined, carry on down the N4 to Sligo, perhaps to indulge in some Yeats, or, if that doesn't appeal, 15 pints of Guinness. Hey, it's a nice town, so it is.
However virtually no-one, it would appear, makes the short detour beyond the northern tip of the lough to Heapstown crossroads. Time is money, or so the proverbial 'they' say, but if you do make the effort I guarantee your 'account' will be in credit. And you can't say fairer than that, can you?
For here, a little north of the aforementioned crossroads, sits a veritable slumbering giant of a cairn - I assume 'passage grave', although, like nearby Maeve's Cairn upon Knocknarea, it remains 'unopened'. And what an unassuming behemoth it is, too, hidden away in a wooded field set back from the junction of minor roads. A full 60m in diameter, it is one of the largest cairns in Ireland outside of Bru Na Boinne, far larger than those at Carrowkeel. The site is bordered by a kerb which infers that the cairn was once far larger than it currently is, the missing material probably now adorning many a local wall, road or building.
According to the local, excellent guide (issued by the Arrow Community Enterprise Limited), George Petrie (yes, himself) visited Heapstown in 1837, at which time a large monolith stood upon the cairn's summit. Unfortunately this is now long gone, apparently lying smashed somewhere within the lush vegetation surrounding the site. More's the pity. The site is known as Carn Oillriallaigh in gaelic folklore... which apparently alludes to it being the tomb of Aillil.... must study up on Irish mythology.
We visit upon a typically Irish day of fine, misty drizzle - the 'dry sort of rain which won't soak you to the skin', according to one of our many B&B hosts, I forget which - this lending a somewhat soft focus to the landscape and cairn-topped mountains beyond the lough. Does wonders for the female skin, too. Oh yes, this phenomenon being another of the wonders of Ireland. But I digress... Anyway, climbing the slippery cairn material with the intrepid 'Gladmum', a dog barks in the yard below as it spots the intruders, so momentarily breaking the silence which seems to envelope the great cairn like a warm blanket. We sit at the summit in hushed awe - reverence, even - trying in vain to contemplate the mind-blowing expenditure of effort it must have taken to erect this monument. And why build it here, aloof from the great nearby mountain top cemetery? Putting it simply I believe there is a lot more to Heapstown Cairn than currently meets the eye, and it could well have been an integral part of the Carrowkeel 'experience'. This is a very, very important site, indeed.
It certainly deserves to be better known...... but in a curious way is fine just the way it is, so to speak.
In Heapstown which is near Lake arrow there is a large heap of stones which is higher than a house. It is said that they came there in one night. It is also said that a prince is buried under it and that everybody who went to the funeral placed a stone over the grave.
From the 1930s Schools Collection of folklore, which has been put online at Duchas.ie.
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