ryaner

Anthony Weir, in his Early Ireland: A Field Guide, published in 1980, mentions that this is across the road from the court tomb. He must have seen it in its original environment back then. It’s now in An Creagán Visitors Centre in Tyrone, about 12 kilometres to the south-west.

Behind the centre is a small duck pond and a kids’ playground. To the right of the pond a set of steps rises on the right and brings you on a number of looped walks through the bogland. To the left of the steps, almost tucked into the bank, is the reconstructed tomb.

An extensive excavation was undertaken before dismantling the tomb and if you compare it to the old photograph (link below) you can see that they remained faithful to the original. It’s actually a quite impressive little monument, with all its sidestones, a backstone and two roofstones, with a ruined antechamber, but is, I would imagine, now used as a climbing frame for the energetic sprogs that populate the locale.

West of the village of the same name, down a country lane and up on a drumlin ridge, is this small relic. It’s like the opening of a day, an invitation to explore further and deeper, little over a metre tall, its fallen neighbour invisible to the south. North from the prominence, above the Creggan boglands, the Sperrins float invitingly. The climb has taken the breath out of me on this, my first venture out of the car since Batterstown. I didn’t touch it, satisfied enough to view, and to anticipate what lay ahead.

Right up in the north-east corner of Lower Lough Erne is the town of Kesh. It’s a pretty nondescript place, somewhere I wouldn’t be keen on passing too much time in… except that it has this mighty and mighty fine standing stone to its east in Drumnarullagh townland. It’s visible from the road about 120 metres into the field, well over 2 metres tall and 1.8 metres wide and is quite majestic, all alone there, with not much else around except the remains of a riverside rath about another 100 metres to the north.

This is a sorry sight these days. We drove along the farm track – I knew there were farm buildings close by – and we were ready to ask for permission. We met a farm worker, not the owner, and he said go ahead. The photo on the NISMR shows the lintel and jambstones in a clearing and I had hopes that we were in for a bit of a treat. Alas no – were we here any later in the year it seems that we wouldn’t get to see anything.

The beautiful altar-like entrance, with one metre tall entrance jambstones both flanked by other supporting orthostats, all covered by a lintel, is all that’s visible and identifiable. The whole area is trashy, unkempt and unloved. On the plan at the NISMR, three stones form the southern gallery walls, with a laterally placed stone forming a sill and separating it into two chambers and then a backstone sealing the rear. All this was hard to check out with all the growth and detritus about the place.

It was one of those places that I didn’t feel like hanging around in, frustrated that the landowners so transparently don’t seem to care about the monument on their land, but not wishing to have a confrontation about the neglect.

In a field beside a road with fast moving traffic, I don’t have a lot to say about this as I only viewed it from the roadside. It’s the lesser one of two in the townland, the better one being about a kilometre west of north of here. There do seem to be few socketed stones but any circular form is difficult to ascertain from the bank at the edge of the field. Another of the many stone circles in the Tyrone/Fermanagh/Derry region.

This was a cinch after the mystery tour over at Tawnydorragh 3 kms to the west – you can drive right up to it. The tarmac runs out after about 700 metres from the main road but the track is relatively well maintained and we’re in a 4-by-4 anyway. East of here is the large expanse of Lough Bradan forest, about 20 square kilometres of relatively high ground. The track becomes undriveable at the tomb and continues up into the forest. Judging from the map you could continue along this way and bend around to the south and find Ally court tomb, about 4 kilometres to the south-east as the crow flies.

Scraghy is badly ruined. The collapse of the huge capstone, 2.4 metres by 3.5 metres, has caused most of the chamber stones to shatter and I didn’t even attempt to try and work out which is what, but judging from some of the remains I estimate that the tomb once stood over 2 metres tall. So a serious piece of neolithic construction.

Then there’s the over two metre tall standing stone 7 metres to the ‘rear’ of the chamber. What with there being little evidence of a cairn footprint, this is a peculiarity. It is, on its own, a fairly serious megalith, something that you would go out of your way to visit. Plonked here where it is, it’s quite possible to imagine that it was part of a singular monument, possibly a revetting stone at the back of the cairn.

Thirty metres south-west of the large standing stone is another small megalith, this time a small cist with just two small sidestones still extant. It’s in a very boggy, clumpy area and I did a fairly serious tumble back there. Even with there being very little growth at this time of the year, conditions were not ideal but it was good to find the little guy, huddled away back there almost lost to the world.

Scraghy was well worth a visit. I’m guessing that, in its ruinous condition, it’s not high on many peoples’ priority list. But the area, though very accessible, retains a wild and inhospitable atmosphere, a barely tamed corner of West Tyrone with plenty to keep the megalithic explorer interested.