The peculiarities of the placement of passage tombs are particularly perplexing. Joking aside, if there is another as phenomenal as this I’ll be flabbergasted. Set 40 metres back from cliffs that are 150 metres above the channel that separates Fair Head from Rue Point on the southern tip of Rathlin Island 4 kilometres to the north, this is megalithic Antrim at its finest.
Towards the back end of this seemingly endless pandemic, we’re on our second visit to north-east Antrim in as many weeks. Six hour round-trips from Dublin are best enjoyed in the summer months and here we were in early August, the season fallen 6 weeks ago. The week previous the sun had been splitting the stones – not so today – low cloud skittered here and there as we tried to cram in as much as possible, not sure whether we’d manage another return trip.
Fair Head car park is situated in a farmyard about 500 metres south-east of the tomb. It’s a paid car park with an honesty box. The couple of quid we spent was well worth it – the car park is a trail-head for a series of walks around the head and the signage was educational and helpful. The walk up to the tomb is a mixture of road and then across rocky pasture with some well maintained stiles. Doonmore Fort is an interesting feature 300 metres along the lane, probable remains of a Norman motte. Beyond this Rathlin peeps over the horizon.
Arriving in the vicinity of the tomb I spotted the low circular cairn. The satellite map at the NISMR came in handy – this wouldn’t be easiest to find without it. The passage and chamber are small, but very well defined. The passage faces north, aligned onto Rathlin. The short walk to the edge of the cliff and the truly breathtaking view down to the sea and then across to the island is close to the finest memory I had on what turned out to be 4 trips to Antrim. The monument, though slight in comparison to some, is still one of those that tugs at the heartstrings, a reminder of what we once were, situated there quite lonely, ignored by most, waiting on you to rediscover and appreciate it. Stunning.
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Two kilometres north-west of Cushendall is Ossian’s Grave court tomb in Lubitavish townland. The track that leads up to the site crosses the Glenaan river. Ossian’s Grave is sited on the eastern end of Glenaan glen’s southern side. We parked at the house/B&B 200 metres up the track and knocked to ask for permission. No one in the house so we headed on up. The hill is quite steep but easy going, beginning to get overgrown in late summer.
The field with the tomb has its own kissing gate and there’s the memorial to John Hewitt just inside of this. Then you see the grave, 100 metres into the field, and it seems to be perfectly placed on the prow of a slight ridge coming down from the mountain of Tievebulliagh, with its axe factory under cliffs 200 metres higher up.
The remains are all quite low for a court tomb, but no less compelling for that. The court is shallow and seems more embracing as a consequence. The two-chambered gallery is bisected by a pair of matching jambs and is maybe 3 metres in overall length. The views north-east up through Glencorp and towards Cushendun were calling us with the promise of more megalithic adventures up in Ballyvennaght. Ossian’s Grave was a good place to start.
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Just beyond the western end of the megalithic wonderland that lies north of the road from Ballyvoy to Torr Head is this odd pair of stones, possibly part of a larger stone row. The stone that you first meet as you walk up from the gate is a magnificent Obelix-dimensioned menhir, almost 3 and a half metres tall. It’s not often that I indulge in a bout of stone-hugging but this one is irresistible, its surroundings probably adding to my sudden melancholy sentimentality. Its amigo at the other end of the church was quite possibly of equal stature, once upon a time, but not now – it seems to have been broken at some stage and is quite deformed, especially when compared to its buddy. Once again, I discovered more information about a site after I had returned and read up a bit more. Must do better.
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About 400 metres east of north of the double portal tomb in the same townland, this is a mighty fine standing stone. Isolated on its own hill, rushes and and marsh grasses almost inundate it, but not quite – it’s 1.8 metres tall. If you were in the vicinity, it’s well worth checking out – the views all around are fine, though the day we were there, low cloud dominated and horizons were shorter.
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This is not the easiest site to access. I had Fourwind’s guidebook with me in the car but neglected to read his directions for no good reason other than being scatterbrained and convinced an approach from Ballycastle Forest car park would be best. We had been in the vicinity a week earlier and had scouted the area a bit and this seemed the best. There were a few fences to traverse but sure when has that ever stopped us?
A track heads east and then south from the car park and skirts the edge of the forest. As the track enters the trees we headed up east along the edge of the forest through a couple of rough pasture fields. The two-dimensionality of the maps and satellite photos never prepares you for what’s ahead so the clomp up the increasingly boggy terrain was challenging if not wholly surprising. Once we’d reached the ridge and traversed the last fence we turned south and headed towards the monument.
There was no immediate sign of the tomb from 150 metres away. The floor of the chambers of this double portal tomb is nestled 2 metres below the ground level of a peat bog. As we got nearer, the top of the western capstone appeared and then, closer in again, it becomes readily apparent that this is an extraordinary monument.
We first skirted around the western end where the better of the two chambers is. There’s not much room at the front of the chamber, sealed as it is with a half-height doorstone. The southern sidestone has been removed and the remaining 4 stones keep the massive capstone propped up, though it seems to have slipped a bit towards the rear.
The eastern tomb, 20 metres from the western, is completely flattened. The capstone, 3.5 metres square, rests on the collapsed chamber stones. Mooching around the place I wondered what direction was the eastern tomb aligned – in the same direction as the western? But that would mean the entrance faced into the cairn. Cairn material is visible between the two chambers. So did the eastern chamber entrance face east?
Of all the many monuments in the large townland of Ballyvennaght, this is the best. I can’t imagine you would ever meet anyone around here – even the sheep seem to give it a wide berth. There are two more portal tombs here, plus a wedge and a court and a nice standing stone. Visiting all of these in one day would be a serious challenge, but now that I’ve been to them all but one, I think I know the best way to attempt it.
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The worst of the three portal tombs in Bellyvennaght townland, we reached here from the double portal that's about 850 metres to the south-west. As can be seen from the photos, the journey across the difficult, boggy terrain was barely worth it... and yet, what else would I be doing? It's probably never going to be on many peoples' agenda, and is therefore under possible threat through neglect and indifference, so in the end, on reflection, I'm glad we made the effort.
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On a fourth visit to north-east Antrim this summer, we set our sights firmly on the cairn on Knocklayd and here, the passage tomb of Carnanmore on East Torr. Three times we had scouted the approach, once even contemplating a shot at it from the west at Ballyvennaght, the saturated, boggy terrain and the low, misty, drizzly cloud dissuading us from our madness. Tom Fourwinds, in Monu-Mental about Prehistoric Antrim, suggests parking at the road junction a kilometre-and-a-half north of the tomb and just below the passage tomb on West Torr and to approach Carnanmore from there. Sage advice, but we’d decided to stick to tombs relatively close to the road on our first trip (excepting Ballygilbert), not being very familiar with the locale, and then, on the following two trips, low cloud and sea mist acted like the curtains of a stage, teasing us but never opening.
Not today. Having earlier summited Knocklayd we decided to follow our plan and make for East Torr, this after watching the low cloud doing a dance around its cairn before finally evaporating in the midday sun. It was a different day to that on our first trip when there was not a cloud in sight nor any haze to obscure the thrilling views. This time Kintyre, Islay and Jura were hidden and Rathlin, scarcely 10 kms to the north, only partially visible.
Leaving the car at the aforementioned junction, we vaulted the gate and set off. It’s at or around the 255 metre contour with the summit at 379 metres, so a gentle 134 metres gain over a kilometre and a half, directly south. The first half a kilometre is relatively easy, grass-covered and firm. There are two fences to surmount, but both have stiles, the first signalling a change in terrain to boggier, heavier ground. After a while a north/south fence appears on your right – it was too tempting not to stick with this and, as it turns out, it points directly at the tomb.
The cairn emerges on the sightline about 300 metres away as you approach from the north. Excitement and anticipation start to really kick in here. I knew from Fourwind’s book and other writings that Carnanmore is special but nothing really prepared me for just how magnificent it actually is. The last fence hurdled as if it wasn’t there, the top of the tomb is hard to resist. I deliberately took my time, trying to slow the experience, but the first surprise of the site is immediate, the spirals on the stone behind the capstone readily apparent in the sunshine. A judicious splash of water revealed the delicate and very worn designs even further. The cupmarks on the next stone to the south are also readily visible.
The cairn is actually quite steep-sided. There are no traces of a kerb that I could see, but surely the combination of slippage and deliberate robbing has led to the top of the chamber being exposed. Entrance into the tomb was gained by removing the eastern, front portion of the chamber as it met the passage, the passage now filled with cairn rubble, its roofstones having been removed and thrown about the place. The chamber floor is accessed by clambering down the rubble in the passage. The removal of the front part of the chamber has exposed the magnificent corbelling in cross-section, the delicate nature of which seems to continue to exist due to the relative isolation of the location. Looking front-on at this and below, on the passage rubble, the two stones that support the capstone look like a winged spectre, guardian of the monument perhaps, demanding continued respect. The southern wall of the chamber looks to be deteriorating, with a void appearing behind the bottom orthostat and the corbelling it supports. It brought to mind the precarious state of the walls around the neck of the passage in Seefin in Wicklow.
Standing in the chamber looking out I wanted the passage to align directly onto the cairn on Knocklayd. It doesn’t. It’s possible Carnanmore has a summer solstice sunset alignment and it’s also possible that its construction predates Knocklayd, neither of which matters to us today. In the late summer sunshine my companion took a nap at the back of the mound. From there the terrain falls precipitously away towards the sea down at Torr Head. Try as we might we couldn’t make out Kintyre, the mass of which seemed like just a stones throw away from West Torr back in early July on our first visit. Sitting here writing this now, on reflection, a visit here was a good, if unplanned, way to bookend our Antrim adventures. And once again, a shout-out to Tom Fourwinds (Ian Thompson) for leading the way.
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One hundred metres south-west of the court tomb lie the sad remains of this wedge tomb. Ruined and all as it is I loved it here, probably because, even though it’s so close to the road, it remains little known and most likely unvisited. In its original state it would have been a small example of its type, no Labbacallee this, aligned roughly west/east with the entrance at the west. There’s very little view in that direction, the forested terrain rising up to a low shelf and blocking the sightline. North-east is Cushleake Mountain North and north of that is Carnanmore, the late evening sea mist doing a revelatory dance around its summit.
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Possibly the oldest of the many megalithic monuments in Ballyvennaght townland, it’s also possibly the best preserved as it’s deeply embedded in the peat. It’s about 1.7 kilometres south-south-east of the double portal tomb, the exposure of which shows just what may lie beneath. Alas, a visit here, though easy, is probably for completists only as there’s not much to see, save for maybe a dozen stones peeping above the turf with some scatters of cairn rubble.
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This is a top site whose atmosphere is detracted from by the buildings of what I believe to be an abandoned weather station. The sea views on the beautiful clear day that we were there were spectacular: the Mull of Kintyre, 20 kilometres across the north channel looking like just a short hang-glide away, Islay and Jura directly north and the north-eastern corner of Rathlin Island to the north-west. Landward to the south is Carnanmore with its passage grave and south of west is Knocklayd with its cairn, also thought to be a passage grave. We was spoiled.
Much, if not all, of the 20 metres diameter kerb remains. The diminutive passage and chamber are aligned almost directly west, the chamber just a slight widening of the passage. The interior of the cairn is grass covered with lots of lumps and bumps, probably with many of the stones of the denuded cairn. It must have been an impressive sight in its complete state. We spent a while here, quite stunned by the views, and along with the sun and the clear blue sky forgot about anything man made and revelled in the nature of place.
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Not much to add to minipixel’s observations – these are two really fantastic stones in utterly modern, prosaic surroundings, accessible in a roadside grazing field, beside the driveway down to some holiday homes. They really are well worth checking out if you can ignore the closeness of the fence and the dullness of the setting – the stones make a statement of their own, bulky and with a sense of permanence. The beach at the bottom of the lane seems fine – the Cushendall and Cushendun area is popular without being over-populated, yet.
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“Can I help you?” asked the owner of the caravan park as we wandered over to the stone near the entrance. “Do you mind if I take a picture of that?” asked I. “Aha, you’re here to see the druid stone.” “Yes.” “There’s quite a few of them hereabouts.” “There is.” It’s at times like these that I’m glad my mate Thomas is with me, much better at talk of druids and suchlike than I. The stone, a large slab 1.8 metres tall and 1.5 metres wide (at it widest) is now being swallowed up by clematis and other garden plants. It’s not a bad garden feature – who wouldn’t like to have one – but I kept thoughts of breathing space and all the rest of it to myself.
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Dunteige wedge tomb is 3 kilometres south back down the road, Ault or Gowkstown wedge tomb is 200 metres across the road and then there’s this, a 1.3 metre tall standing stone that may or may not have been a supporting stone for a megalithic chamber, other stones, now removed, having been reported in earlier times. Again Slemish sits on the horizon to the south-east. The baying hounds in the farmyard beside the field with the wedge tomb put us off attempting a visit.
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I had only a short time at Dunteige wedge tomb. The field in which it lies was full of sheep and there were hordes of them on the road, coming down from the pass at Linford where we’d parked the car to head over to Ballygilbert. I didn’t think that they were going to come down this far but the sound of thousands of the little wooly feckers started to intrude on my visit after about 10 minutes.
The remains sit on a small rise north of the road. The ground falls away again before continuing to rise northwards up to Craigy Hill on the slopes of which is a court tomb (some other time). Much of the structure of the wedge tomb survives – double walling on the north side, with 10 large boulders on the outside, a narrow gallery/chamber, and double walling on the south side, though this is less visible as there in much cairn rubble in the gap between the chamber wall and the outer wall.
The tomb is aligned north-west/south-east with the top of Slemish just peeping over the horizon directly along the alignment. Though the site is fine it wasn’t great on atmospherics in the scorching sun and it was a mildly frustrating visit given all the sheep. I ended up running back down to the car as the white baaing tsunami come down from the pass in a torrent, escaping their killer clutches just in time.
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We pulled into the parking place at the 279 metre contour along the Ulster Way on the road above Ballygally and Cairncastle. East-south-east from here is Knock Dhu with its promontory fort. Below its northern cliffs is a semi-permanent film set from the early episodes of Game of Thrones. The area is at the southern edge of the Glens of Antrim and the view east is fantastic.
We hadn’t planned on visiting Ballygilbert – we were on our way to Dunteige wedge tomb up the road – but I had Fourwind’s book with me and I asked my mate Thomas if he fancied a three kilometre walk to a surprisingly cool stone. He said yes and so off we set north along the way.
The way marked path crosses two peaks, rising first to Ballycoos at 361 metres, then down into a slight dip and back up to Scawt Hill at 378. I’d thought that once we’d gained Scawt we’d be almost there but no, there’s a steep descent north of the peak and the stone is another kilometre and a half further on. However, we had fantastic weather and the views were amazing and it was from the peak of Scawt that we first caught sight of Scotland, the Rhinns of Galloway visible on the horizon due east.
The ground is wild heathland and is farmed, mostly sheep but some cattle. Stiles allow you to traverse the walls and fences. We ploughed on, determined and blown away by the beauty of the views then gained the stone after about three quarters of an hour. And what a stone! It’s 1.6 metres tall, the top 60 or so centimetres a large bulbous glans. Fnarr fnarring aside this was well worth the effort. How a stone with this obviously phallic form has survived down through the ages given the religious bollocks (ahem) that has swept the land around here is one of megalithic Ireland’s happier tales. Awesome stone, awesome place.
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Situated in a relatively isolated part of the large Ballyreagh townland, this was our last visit on a busy day. Back at Cloghtogle, Ann Orr had recommended that we visit this and mentioned that the landowner was friendly and very proud of the monument on his land. We’d just been down the road at the Three Stones and headed over as the sun began its long descent to setting.
Access was through the farmyard of the owner who duly agreed with a nod of the head and an away you go. The tombs sit on rising ground on the northern side of Ballyreagh Hill. With its covering cairn and kerbstones it would have been an powerful sight. Denuded and with its two, eastern and western, chambers exposed it still retains the power to impress.
The eastern tomb is the more striking. Two large, unmatched entrance portals dominate. The socketed sidestones with the segmenting jambstones offer a pleasing, almost perfect rectangular two-chambered gallery. I say this only because of the amount of places I visit that have been completely trashed. There don’t seem to be any remains of a forecourt.
The western tomb is longer but with lower stones. Again it’s a two-chambered gallery, but with a small ante-chamber. Most of the stones are satisfyingly bulky. There does appear to be the remains of part of the forecourt.
We stopped and sat a while here. Though it’s in a relatively isolated spot the effects of the vagaries of time are noticeable – houses, abandoned outbuildings, pylons and wires, the denudation of the tomb cairn itself. Some of the kerbstones remain and cairn rubble is visible in places and overall it’s a bit messy. Yet, as you move around the tombs, you can’t help getting pulled into the mystery of the place, drawn by the spine of the monument into skeletal imaginings of who built this place and what their lives were like, the stones retaining the power to amaze.
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So it seems speculation is rife about these three stones. Are they the remains of a megalithic tomb? Are they an alignment (even though they’re not in a line)? There’s a handwritten note in the NISMR that speculates that on the smaller, more distant stone, there are scorings that resemble ‘the face of a man wearing a hat.’ Well that’s as well as maybe, but I’m going to throw my twopence worth into the ring and say that I reckon this is the remains of a ceremonial stone circle.
The stones stand on top of a hill, surrounded on all sides by higher ground. However, about 4 kilometres directly to the south, through a gap, is Topped Mountain and maybe it was our visit there earlier in the day, or my previous reading that Topped is thought to be the focal point of many of the monuments in the area, but I couldn’t help feeling that this may have been a small ‘temple’, used by the locals to ‘worship’ that sacred hill.
Silly speculation and nonsense over, this was the highlight of our day (so far). The sun had emerged fully and burnt away the mist and low cloud that had tracked us all day. We had decided up at the disappointing Glengesh portal tomb that we’d try for 2 more sites on our way home, this one and the dual court tomb 2 kilometres up the road in the same townland. If you’re in the vicinity, or passing though Tempo, I’d recommend a quick diversion to here.
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Not much to report here. A very ruined and trashed tomb. I had leapt the field gate and headed north-west up the massive field, under pasture this year but the satellite shows that it has crops some years. The remains are not visible from the road – they nestle over the brow of the hill and over the next, smaller one too. I was 400 metres into the my quick dash before I realised there was livestock in the field, a few uninterested cows and their largish calves, right beside the tomb. Bored and placid they may have been but I’m never too comfortable intruding in their cow-lives.
There are 4 socketed stones and with a few other broken looking ones lying around in a small area 8 metres by 3. How they came to the conclusion, without excavation, that this is a portal tomb is a mystery. I didn’t stick around. Another one for the completists only.
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What a peculiar place and odd stone. Known locally as the Garranbane Stone it sits halfway up a small, steep hill/drumlin the summit of which is tree-covered. We pulled in at the side of the road and I headed up. The bullaun, if that is what it is, is carved into the side of the stone, a huge glacial erratic I presume, and has no ability to hold water. The rim of the bullaun looked suspiciously pronounced enough to add to my doubts. It’s maximum diameter is about 22 cms. I suppose I’ll go along with it being a bullaun and suitable fare for here because of the two pieces of folklore attached to it: that the stone itself was thrown from the summit of Topped Mountain by a giant; and that if you’re suffering from a headache, if put your head into the bowl you will be cured. An oddity but worth a visit.
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Beside the driveway of a farmhouse, this very small cist-like chamber is said to be the remains of a wedge tomb. We pulled up at the farmhouse and were met by the delightful Ann Orr who takes an interest in all things archaeological and is very proud of the rich amount of prehistoric monuments in the locality.
The roofstone nestles over 4 slabs and the chamber is open to the north-east, an unusual occurrence in wedge tombs. I struggled to get a good photo of any part of this tomb, especially the inside of the chamber. The best part of our visit here was meeting Ann.
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Taxi-driving, graphic artist with a penchant for high hills and low boulders. Currently residing in Tallaght where I can escape to the wildernesses of Wicklow within 10 minutes.
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