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The better of two standing stones within 150 metres of each other and said to form an alignment onto Topped Mountain cairn with the stone in neighbouring townland of Mullyknock or Topped Mountain 150 metres to the north-east.
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Unremarkable wedge-shaped standing stone, said to form an alignment onto Topped Mountain cairn with the stone in neighbouring townland of Cavancarragh 150 metres to the south-west.
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The supposed focal point of many monuments in the area, this is a massive cairn over 30 metres in diameter and over 3 metres tall. It may have been taller pre-excavation in 1897 when a bronze age secondary cist burial was found.
There’s a car-park to the peak’s south-east beside Toppedmountain Lake. The climb is brief but steep along a maintained track. The cairn sits at the southern edge of the domed peak of the mountain. The views all around are magnificent and this seems to be a popular spot given the erosion on the monument, the track seeming to continue right on to its top.
We spent a while here on what was a warm and low-cloud, misty day, exploring the various rock outcrops. Views east into South Tyrone were best, the view to the Erne basin obscured by haze.
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Less than 100 metres and over a fence to the east of the wedge tomb is this robbed out cairn. Lough Skale to the north is even more prominent from this on slightly higher ground than the wedgie. The ruins are still pretty well defined, 13 metres in diameter and about a metre tall. The western arc is better preserved. There was once another cairn between this and the wedge tomb but there are no traces of it left.
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The tease that was Mountdrum down the road left us eager for more. This fine wedge tomb is in a boggy field that seems to be experiencing ‘improvements’ – here’s hoping they look after the monument. We pulled up opposite and chatted to the friendly local man doing a bit of gardening. When I told him I would like to visit the tomb in the field he reckoned the owner wouldn’t have a problem, but he was curious: why that one is particular? I really struggled to explain and the best I could do was: because it’s there. He did say that the area is full of this stuff. He wasn’t lying.
Like at Mountdrum, the tomb retains a roofstone at its eastern, back end. I always wonder in situations like this why they left the one stone. It does look cool and dolmen-like. Though it is overgrown at this time of the year, the relatively well preserved gallery is apparent. Again, I was struck by the atmosphere of the place. Foxglove, normally odious bracken, tall grass, even nettles and gorse, all combined to shroud the tomb in nature’s mystery. There is a good amount of cairn material still here and the remains sit smugly into the mound and the wider environment. Lough Skale is 150 metres to the north and is visible from the tomb. Well worth checking out.
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100 metres up the lane from the car-park beside the field with the wedge tomb remains is this complex – a triple concentric-ring stone circle with one alignment and another stone circle with two alignments. However, I'll have to take the word of the literature on this because there is very little to see as, again, this place has been neglected since the information boards were erected and the place properly fenced off.
Having said that, this place had a powerful impact on me. I struggled to make out anything discernible, save for the eastern arc of the triple circle. And yet, as I stumbled around through the sphagnum and briars and heather, wild orchids and multitudes of grasses, the mystery pulled me in, mesmerised me a bit and I played around with the skulls of two sheep on the low stones of the western circle, almost revisiting the magic of childhood. There's really very little to see here, but feel the power.
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We arrived at the signposted Mountdrum Archaeological Complex as two massive tractors barrelled down the lane onto the road. I stopped one and asked if we could drive up the laneway and was the site accessible. Sure off you go – there’s a car park there too. Result!
I believe that Mountdrum once had pretensions of being a mini-Beaghmore type attraction. What with the peace-dividend money from Europe and some local enthusiasm, the land with the sites was bought and fenced properly and some signposts and display boards erected. And then that seems to have been that. Two wedge tombs, two other unclassified megalithic monuments and three stone circles and their attendant stone rows and alignments are now left to the vagaries of the gorse, grass and sphagnum moss.
Heading straight ahead from the car-park and down to the left where the remains of the wedge tomb and another unclassified megalith you can see where there used to be a track. This is now getting overgrown and the scant remains of the unclassified tomb are sad indeed. Maybe there was a court tomb here once upon a time. The area is generally boggy but relatively dry in early July.
The wedge tomb retains a good degree of charm. A line of contiguous stones remain on the north side of the chamber. There’s a roofstone over what seems to have been a small subsidiary chamber at the rear, east end of the tomb. The whole area has a forlorn feel, not always the worst sort of vibe for me. There are said to be the remains of some circles, alignments and another wedge tomb in this same, first field but the place is too overgrown now and I’d say wouldn’t be any more navigable in winter.
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There is minimal parking space on the southern flank of the mountain at the bottom of a tarmacked track. The track is used by the services to maintain the large aerials on the spur that overlooks Newry to the south-east of the peak. From what I can see, using the older OS map that I have, this track used to be drivable for the general public, a bit like that over at Sliabh Gullion, but no more. No harm anyway – it’s a relatively leisurely stroll to gain the aerials and an overall height gain of about 250 metres from the parking spot.
We reached the knoll with the aerials after a brisk half hour stroll, some of which is a tad steep. Views east and south-east towards the Cooleys and down Carlingford Lough begin to open up as you climb. On reaching the aerials it’s best to double back on yourself along the track that skirts the southern side of the knoll/spur. This leads to a boggy track that heads down for a bit and back up to the summit.
Bog cotton fluttered in the strong breeze that had built up as we climbed, mirroring the fast-moving clouds that threatened to disperse at any moment but never did. The up-turned pudding bowl that is the central peak of the larger Camlough mountain spread is enticing, pulling you higher.
The cairn probably promises more than it delivers. It’s very ruined. I’ve added it here as a chambered cairn but I would tend to agree that it’s probably a wrecked passage grave. Some of the large stones visible on top of the remains have that very orthostatic feel. I would guess that in its pomp the monument was at least twice as tall as it is now. The ‘desecration’ of the timber cross is highly intrusive and unavoidable.
The views to the north, east, south and south-west are all fantastic. Gullion, the mother of all the hills around here in the ring, looms away to the south-west. I couldn’t make out its southern cairn so can’t rightly say if it and this are intervisible. Might any passage that existed here have been aligned onto Calliagh Beara’s tomb? Maybe. About 80 metres directly west of the cairn is a small platform that seemed to have been flattened out as some sort of ceremonial space – but this is just more speculation. I had hoped that Cam Lough itself would be visible from here but alas no. You have to head another 100 metres more to the west for that view to open up.
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Belleek (Béal Leice, mouth of the flagstone?) is a small village midway between Camlough and Newtownhamilton in Armagh. South of the village in the first field on the right on Shaughan Road is this interesting stone.
The field had been harvested recently and the farmer had begun to spread slurry so it was pretty ripe in the heat. Is this the flagstone that the village is named after? Maybe, maybe not. It's a 1.6 metre tall slab and has flaked and chipped in places which could lead one to believe that it's not all that ancient.
The views south-east towards Gullion and north-east towards Banbridge are fantastic. The hill rises to the west so the view is blocked there.
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Another site that I've been unable to locate a couple of times previous. It's on the northern slopes of Sliabh Gullion about 3 kilometres south-west of Camlough town, as the crow flies. The area is gorgeous and wild, mainly sheep farming territory.
The stone stands in a little enclosure about 100 metres east of the boreen. It's about a metre and a half tall and leaning to the east and wonderfully phallic. The top seems to mirror the peak of Sugarloaf Hill about two kilometres to the north.
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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.
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With its own parking spot and two information boards Legananny dolmen is a well-known tourist draw in the mid-Down area. However, it is in a quite isolated spot, well off the beaten track and is generally quiet and peaceful.
The tripod dolmen misnomer (were they ever meant to be viewed as we see them today?) is shared with Ballykeel in South Armagh not too far away and comparisons are hard to avoid. I find Legananny more satisfying, even though the setting is a tad more claustrophobic with the farm buildings so close by.
The view south down the lane towards the Mournes was spectacular today, the sculpture (for what else could you describe it as?) taking on all sorts of shapes and characteristics as I moved around it. Denuded as it is it still retains a power and majesty all its own, mysterious and captivating. I stayed a while, managing to forget the pressures of a busy life, lost in appreciation, and awestruck by the beauty of it all.
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Livestock in the field stopped me investigating what turns out to be a relatively well-preserved court tomb. It's close by the road that is east of the mass of Slieve Giullion and is dreadfully overgrown with gorse.
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I couldn't enter the field because of mares and their foals but this stone looks to be about a metre and a half tall and the field borders the Newry river to its west.
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Worth a quick stop as you pass by. Beautifully set above Lough Brickland just off the Belfast to Dublin road in what is said, on the SMR, to be a potato field but was under pasturage the day I was there. Seems king Billy stopped by on his march to the Boyne all those years ago according to the commemorative plaque – maybe he was after the spuds. Pity about the massive flagpole beside the stone but hey, we know where we are.
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I knew this would be bad but not this bad. Two stones remain standing on one side of a gap between two fields. On the other side is a pile of boulders, one of which is said to remain in situ. What evidence that any of this is the remains of a megalithic tomb is beyond my understanding. I'm glad I stopped by but I won't be back.
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This was most definitely the highlight of a mixed bag of a day. Things had started out sunny and warm but by the time we found Clyhannagh it had been raining for about 4 hours. I’d been at the bottom of the track that leads to Clyhannagh three times before, never knowing that it’s actually publicly accessible. I knew, sensed, that the place would be special, but had always retreated.
The area has Marble Arch caves and the Stairway to Heaven walkway up Cuilcagh and can be quite busy but it’s still otherworldly. We passed by again and bounced over to Belcoo, beaten by the lack of a parking place on the very narrow road. I felt deflated, disappointed after the success at Doohaty Glebe. We saw the bullaun at Templenaffrin and decided to give it one last shot. Arriving back at the track the two visible gates were open. Ah, the joys of a 4 wheel drive.
Two hundred yards up the track we met some locals and asked their permission to go visit the megalithic tomb. The what? Yeah, well it’s a five thousand year old burial tomb. Don’t know it but sure go on ahead, you can keep going all the way to the other side. Right – thanks. See yez. Three more field gates across the track and we’re in Burren-like territory – in fact the Cavan Burren is only about 2 kilometres west of here. It’s nowhere near as eroded and grykey here as it is in Clare and the area around the tomb is farmed – bullocks roamed and there are a few old farm buildings – but the place is wild.
The tomb was only re-discovered in 1970 and the archaeological survey says that it’s covered in hazel scrub – the good news is: not any more. Who cleaned it up and why matters little – I’m just glad they did. What remains is a dual court tomb aligned almost north south. There is little, if anything, remaining of either court but both galleries retain plenty of character – though there is no stone separating them, their distinctiveness is clear with a gap in the sidestones midway along their 8 metre length. The southern gallery is the better preserved.
You could be a million miles away from so-called civilisation up here, yet Blacklion and Belcoo are only a couple of miles to the north-west. Almost directly west of the tomb is an unnamed mountain, an outlier from the Cavan Burren hills further west, separated from it by the meandering Marlbank road, the long horseshoe that wends its way up from the Florence Court Road, past the Caves and various other attractions before diving north again past the Marlbank viewpoint above Lough Maclean Upper. It’s a strange prominence with cliffs and corries but very climbable in places, and for the life of me, I can’t find its name anywhere [edit 2-3-23 - Knock's Hill]. It dominates the terrain around the tomb and, it would seem to me, was an important consideration in the placement of the monument by its builders.
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About a kilometre east of Belcoo, on the Belcoo to Enniskillen (or, expanding out a bit, the Sligo to Belfast) road, close to the northern shore of Lough Macnean Lower, on a damp and dreary late May day, we looked north across the rushy fields and wondered how to traverse obstacles of ditch and fence and fast traffic.
Ah maps, don’t you just love them? Where would we be without them? Take the next left here – there’s a track that skirts around at the back of the fields. We might get to it from there. Templenaffrin (Teampail nAifreann – the mass church) has, unsurprisingly, a medieval church and graveyard. And surprise, surprise it’s tended to, which we discovered after we’ve headed up the track and crossed the meadow.
But nice and all as it is (inklings here of another christianisation as the church is built on a mound), it’s not why we’re here today. Separating the field with the church from the field with the bullaun is a small wood with some very large deciduous trees. A fence runs through it and there is some dense undergrowth. However, heading south, the wood runs out and the fence is easily traversed. Heading back north-west and through the wood I got the sense that we’re not the only visitors this stone gets. The place reeked of hippiness, a not unwelcome vibe. We disturbed a grazing deer as we emerged from the wood.
The ground around the stone, and especially to its east, is marshy. We’re in limestone territory and were it not for the nearby swallow hole this would probably be impassable. My companion, not hugely experienced in the megalithic, suggested as we stood and listened to the water disappear underground that maybe this was why the carvers chose this stone. I wouldn’t disagree.
The stone is a sandstone erratic about 1.2 metres tall. The three very visible basins are satisfying. I did the old wash my hands in the water trick to ward off warts. I prefer this idea to the alternative locally named ’baptismal font’. Arriving back and checking the reports it seems I missed a fourth basin, 31cm in diameter and 3cm deep (no wonder). You can see this in one of the shots I took.
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Third time lucky? No such thing. Third time I knew exactly where the tomb is because of the excellence of the mapping at the NISMR which I hadn’t got the last two times I was here. Start at the forest track on the Ulster Way where it crosses the Swanlinbar to Enniskillen road. There’s a place to park that doesn’t block any farm gates and it’s over a stile and along a field track.
Benaughlin is prominent to the west as you start to rise out of a small valley bottom. It’s not at all strenuous and after about 1,200 metres you take a left turn, off the Way. Another 300 metres in a south-westerly direction, the dot on the OS map could mean that the tomb is well in to the left off the track. It isn’t. The central chamber of a sprawling, ‘star-shaped’ cairn is 20 metres in amongst the scrub. In fact, some of the cairn almost reaches the track itself.
It was excavated by Wakeham in 1882. It was he who first described a ’starfish-shaped’ cairn or a star-shaped cairn. This is now thought to have come about by, according to Estyn Evans, ‘the accidental result of pillage.’ Whatever about all that it’s evident that someone cares enough to come here and cut back some of the under/overgrowth and stop it completely inundating the gallery and chambers.
We mooched around for a bit – it’s not the easiest on the eye nor on the ankles. There’s a large amount of cairn rubble in both the small northern chamber and the larger southern one. Herbage of various sorts obscures the small arm at the south-east of the gallery. Vibes-wise I would say for the completists only, or maybe for those who still want to bear witness to the burial rites of the ancestors.
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I've called this a kerbed cairn but there ain't no cairn here anymore. There are, however, 67 boulders in a circle of 35 metres diameter. Alas, late May is probably not the best time to visit them. I've seen other photos of the site and they show some quite massive stones, only 10 of which are still in situ.
So it seems, according to historical reports, that this was probably a passage grave, or possibly a bronze age multiple-cist cairn, the central material of which went into the creation of the roads and other infrastructure in the locality. Which is a shame really, because this would be one hell of a fantastic site. As it is it's not bad either, just neglected and overgrown and frustratingly unloved and uncared for. So what's new?
I approached from the north, from the quaintly named Wattlebridge Road, just beside the bridge. The turrets of Crom Castle were visible in the distance to the north-west. It was a bit of a climb through marshy grass until I reached the circle. There is no access to the site from here but some of the stones are visible in the hedge. I skirted over two fences and around to the southern arc and gained access from here.
Sadly, as I said above, there's precious little to see – however, the place still retains some power and dignity. Once upon a time there were supposed to be views all around and all with water. Now with all the growth, including some large ash trees, that's mainly restricted to the south. There are some stones visible on the ground in the less overgrown western and southern arcs. I could have stayed a lot longer than I did, rooted around a bit more, but my companion for the day was waiting below at the bridge and we had more sites on our agenda.
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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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