Images

Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by ryaner

I like the way the padstones tilt the roofstone to the horizontal.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by ryaner

Looking out between the entrance jambstones. The construction is quite complex.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by costaexpress

Easy access although the relatively narrow road made me wish I’d left my van on the main road, only a few yards away

Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by costaexpress

Although close to other farm buildings this site retains its character and in a stunning location

Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by costaexpress

The site is so closed in that it is difficult to photo the true beauty of this magnificent tomb

Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by ryaner

Looking over the anomalous stone group back towards the main tomb.

Edit. This is from the Northern Ireland Sites & Monuments Record: The owner of the land on which the Clontygora Court Tomb [ARM 029:011] has erected a circle of small stones in a field nearby and has built a larger standing stone into the field boundary. These look authentic but are NOT antiquities. It is not known where the stones came from originally.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by ryaner

This arrangement of stones is about 200 metres south of the court tomb. I can’t find mention of it anywhere except Fourwind’s who thinks it’s modern and Anthony Weir who says it’s the remains of a second court tomb. There are six set stones and three loose boulders and they seem to me to be probably an ancient arrangement.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by ryaner

This pair of courtstones are just to the right of the entrance jambs and show the flair of the tomb builders.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by ryaner

From one arm of the court towards the back of the tomb.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Clontygora – Court Tomb by CianMcLiam

Artists impression of how the court tomb would have looked from the information board.

The three guys in the court are hilarious, either they are warming their hands off a nice turf fire inside or else they have realised the grizzly bear they have tied up inside has worked his way loose...

Articles

Clontygora — Court Tomb

Truly a site for a King. Nearby Fathom Hill (Flagstaff) is a superb vantage point looking for miles over the Lough and the Mourne mountains

There has been recent new building – conversions – nearby and it is possible to imagine the abundant new dry stone walling repositioned as the cairn stones they possibly were.

Impressive monument and well kept. Lots more under the ground to stimulate the imagination

Clontygora — Court Tomb

A full moon brought me back to Clontygora, hoping to get a better picture of the moon between the superbly shaped court stones than last year (cianmcliam.smugmug.com/gallery/345408/1/13728798/Large) but I only confirmed what I thought already, its impossible to get a nice detailed moon shot by time its moved into the right position because the rest of the image is black, needs to be done during the late evening when the sky is still fairly bright.

Another dissapointment was the discovery that a HUGE new barn/workshop type thing has been built right across the road and is impossible to ignore while here.

Nevertheless, Clontygora is still a great place to be and hats off to whoever keeps the grass so neat. Of all the sites I’ve been to though, this place has the highest concentration of dog-dirt I’ve ever come across, even in the chamber. Be careful where you tread!

Folklore

Clontygora — Court Tomb
Court Tomb

Folklorist George Paterson recalls....
The King’s Ring was a grand place once, but they took stones to build the lock on Newry Canal.There was a time when there was music in the ring. It was quare music, one minute it would coax the heart out of you, and the next it would scare the living daylights out of you. Maybe it is laments for the oul’ kings that are played.

Folklore

Clontygora — Court Tomb
Court Tomb

The whole is left intact by the nature of its surroundings. The interior of the chamber is filled with small field stones, and no means are left to examine it; but I understand that tradition tells of ”curious things” being got in the inside at one time.

The writer simultaneously is pleased by the protection three walls meeting at the tomb have provided, yet is desperate to have all the stones removed so its “goodly appearance” can once more be seen. It’s obviously all tidied up now though. Over tidied one suspects? From a piece by Thomas Hall (with pre-tidied photos) in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 5th series, v24, no.1 (1904).

Sites within 20km of Clontygora — Court Tomb