This site is marked as a Megalithic Complex that includes a stone circle, an alignment and a cairn. It’s fairly typical of quite a few sites in this part of Tyrone – it was discovered after peat-cutting á la Beaghmore – but in its present, overgrown condition is hard to interpret and probably best bypassed on your way to the superb Creggandevesky court tomb.
What can be seen is a raised, roughly circular area about 20 metres in diameter, 1.5 metres or so above the surrounding terrain. On the southern flank of this is the alignment, the most visible of the monuments. It tangentially abuts the circle to its north. The 11 stones of the circle were barely visible on the day we were there, summer growth inundating them.
The terrain in the area is wild and rugged, a small outcrop of hilly rock immediately to the south. West of this is a small lake. 300 metres east-south-east is the aforementioned Creggandevesky court tomb.
After the disappointment over at Glenknock, this was more like it. Even though it’s very ruined, it still retains a lot of character, mainly due to the still-standing and enormous portals, both of which are over 2 metres tall.
The remains are located two fields in, behind an old but not fully abandoned farmstead. We pulled up at the next field along to the south, just past the t-junction, traversed the edge of this field and hopped the fence once we’d come parallel to the site.
The tomb has been almost completely destroyed, except for the portals and a half-height doorstone. The entry at the NISMR says that there are three capstones but obviously it’s meant that there are three fragments of the one capstone (I hope). One of these fragments is abutting the rear of the gigantic northern portal and looked to me like a chamber sidestone. I’m still not totally convinced that I’m wrong.
Whatever was the original arrangement of the stones here, it can be safely said that this would have been an enormous portal tomb, one of the most impressive in the land. Alas, all we’ve got left are traces, and our own imaginings of what once was.
There are a couple of relatively recent photos of this site on the NISMR that would lead you to believe it's worth visiting. Alas, not anymore. After what is described as "agricultural reclamation close to the site", anything that was in the past discernible as being the remains of a portal tomb is now an indistinguishable and overgrown mess of stones piled up against each other. I think I recognised a remaining socketed portal but who knows? A sad and sorry mess.
The A5 Great Northern Road to Derry becomes Beltany Road north of Omagh town. It bends to the east just south of Mountjoy village, which it bypasses, and almost follows the contours of the Shrule river valley, before straightening out once again, this time practically hugging the Shrule having passed the Ulster-American Folk Park. Two kilometres north of the park there is a chambered grave marked on the OS map, west of the road.
It's not an easily accessible site. The A5 is a busy and fast road. Though it’s only 150 metres away from the road, over a gate and up a pasture field, I’d never seen nor heard of it anywhere else other than on the NISMR and it’s easy to see why. I’ve passed it maybe twenty times and never given it a second thought. And now, having visited it, I discover there’s a fairly intact wedge tomb not 100 metres to its north-west, incorporated into a field boundary. Ah well, the perils and joys of stone-hunting.
There is much to see here, even if the gallery is terribly ruined. Like a lot of Tyrone sites, much of the surrounding cairn remains, its frontal revetments in evidence. Or maybe I’m mistaken – I would have thought that the floor of the court and gallery would be level with the surrounding field, but no, like at Loughmacrory 16 kilometres or so to the east, both are raised about a metre above. Slightly puzzling, a trait I’ve found at many Tyrone sites.
There is very little of the court remaining, three stones on its east side. The gallery is smashed and the roofstones broken up and flung about. Some of the chamber sidestones are still there and some have been removed, conjuring up imaginings of the looters using measuring equipment to pick the choicest examples. There is one lintel/roofstone still in situ over the jambstones dividing the first and second chambers of the gallery. It gives the place some small bit of character.
I didn’t hang around – this was one of the first sites in a busy itinerary – but experienced enough to remain impressed. Set on a ridge of above the Shrule valley, the views east into the southern Sperrins were gorgeous in the September sunshine. It's aligned roughly north-south, with the entrance at the south. The valley side continues to rise to the west up to the peak of Bessy Bell with its summit cairn, said to be a possible court tomb, at 450 metres. Another site for another day, and maybe that elusive wedge tomb too.
North of Loughmacrory town, and the lake itself, and along an accessible road that turns into a track, this is a mad arrangement of stones. 100 metres into the field from the gate it's right beside the rock outcrop from whence it probably came.
It's nearest comparison is the Labby Rock in Carrickglass in Sligo, another monster capstone over small supporting stones. It looks like it was a rush job but on closer inspection it's quite cleverly arranged. The tallest of the supporting stones is the backstone, but this is tilted inwards into the chamber, lowering its peak and tilting the capstone from front to rear off the portals, neatly distributing the weight.
The outcrop is being colonised by gorse and the views front-on at the portals are disappearing. There was a large amount of cattle off in the distance in the large field that contains the tomb. On their approach we decided to leave a little sooner than we would have liked to.