Ballymacdermot

Nearest town:
Dundalk (17km S)
OS reference:
J065239
OS sheet:
29
Latitude:
54° 9' 10.69 N
Longitude:
6° 22' 10.97 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by costaexpress

Looking back up at the tomb, the partially covered mound provides a feel for what the site must have looked like when in use

costaexpress
costaexpress Sep 4, 2021
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by costaexpress

Why wouldn’t you want to be laid to rest here, I didn’t want to leave and I’m yet to be called.

costaexpress
costaexpress Sep 4, 2021
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by ryaner

This stone is part of the western horn of the court and matches the one in the previous shot.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jun 7, 2021
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Tall stone on the eastern horn of the court.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jun 7, 2021
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Corbelling on the eastern side of the second, main chamber. A sillstone is at bottom left separating this chamber from the first or ante-chamber.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jun 7, 2021
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Parts of the Ring of Gullion in the near distance with the Cooleys further out.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jun 7, 2021
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Looking east towards the Mournes in the distance.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jun 7, 2021
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Frome the rear of the tomb along the galleries.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jun 10, 2018
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by ryaner

There are four chambers/galleries at Ballymacdermot.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jun 10, 2018
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by ryaner

The last stop on a day trip through East Monaghan and South Armagh, it’s hard to believe that no TMA contributors have been here for 12 years. Ballymacdermot is relatively accessible by the roadside and spectacularly located.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jun 10, 2018
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by CianMcLiam

From across the small stone wall at the car park. The amount of rubbish in the area is truly appalling. I’d hate to bring a visitor up here and find it in this state.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2006
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Sep 19, 2006
Image of Ballymacdermot (Court Tomb) by greywether

Court from the NW.

The cairn runs roughly N/S with the court to the N.

The court was originally almost a full circle with only a narrow gap in the cairn providing the entrance.

greywether
greywether Jan 2, 2004

Articles

Ballymacdermot

ryaner
ryaner Jun 7, 2021

Another roadside Armagh tomb. Been here three times before and never written about it. Don’t know why – what an absolute corker of a court tomb and what a location. I was heading back home from a mate’s gaf in Castlewellan and was on a recce for the cairn on top of Camlough mountain and had to stop by.

It’s sits there on the southern flank of Camlough, part of the broader caldera that is the ring of Gullion. There are three parking spaces on the road at the front of the tomb but I guess you could hike here from Newry, about 3 kilometres away as the crow flies, a tad more than that up the winding road.

The tomb was excavated in 1962 and restored after excavation (I’ve posted a link to a pdf of the excavation report – careful, it’s 80 megs). Like a lot of the tombs in state care in the north it has its own enclosure. Unlike at other places this is unobtrusive, the result of the tomb being on a hillock and the fence being sunken away from the sightline.

The construction is fantastic. The gallery sits in some of in its cairn, the outside of the sidestones hidden. On the west side of the second chamber the first course of corbelling is still in situ. The jambstones separating this second from the rear chamber are wonderful, if a little tight for my Dad bod.

The court faces north up the hill so the views here are restricted. Not so to the south and west – the large mass of Gullion itself lies to the south-west. South-east are the Cooleys. Directly east are the Mournes with Donard about 35kms thence. The monument is popular but has never been crowded the times I’ve been there – you could probably have the tomb to yourself if you hung around as most visitors that I’ve met only give it a cursory once over before moving on.

Folklore

Ballymacdermot
Court Tomb
stubob
stubob Oct 4, 2010

George Paterson recorded the following story about the tomb.
Sur’ he saw no hurt in the breakin of it. But he never lived till finish it. For hundreds of years it has been there – maybe indeed since the beginning of time. I always remember it. Sure, it was there that I saw the first wee people.

From the Gap of the North by Noreen Cunningham & Pat Mcginn....

Miscellaneous

Ballymacdermot
Court Tomb
stubob
stubob Oct 4, 2010

In 1962 after excavation the monument was repaired, since the American Army on tank manoeuvres, during the Second World War, threw down some of the facade stones and broke them.

Topics

Sweet 6
treaclechops
treaclechops
Jan 2005

Sites within 20km of Ballymacdermot

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