Ballymacgibbon Cairn | |
---|---|
Native name Irish: Carn Bhaile Mhic Giobúin | |
Type | Cairn |
Location | Ballymacgibbon North, Cross, County Mayo, Ireland |
Coordinates | 53°32′32″N9°14′13″W / 53.542197°N 9.237080°W |
Elevation | 40 m (130 ft) |
Height | 10 m (33 ft) |
Built | 4000–2500 BC |
Official name | Ballymacgibbon Cairn |
Reference no. | 251 |
Ballymacgibbon Cairn is a cairn and National Monument located in County Mayo, Ireland. [2] [3]
Ballymacgibbon Cairn is atop a hill 1.4 km (0.87 mi) west of Cross, County Mayo. [4] [5]
Ballymacgibbon Cairn has never been excavated, but is believed to have been constructed in the Neolithic.[ citation needed ]
William Wilde claimed that the cairn was erected by the mythical king Eochaid mac Eirc to celebrate Battle of Moytura. [6]
The cairn is a large limestone cairn 30 m (98 ft) across. It is surrounded by a low mound, and kerbstones are visible in several places, one of which has some interesting lines or scratches. The sides are very steep and the top is flat, indicating that it almost certainly contains a passage grave. [7]
There is the remains of a lime kiln attached to the north side of the monument. [8]
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are found throughout Britain and Ireland, with the largest number in Scotland.
Newgrange is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, located on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, eight kilometres west of the town of Drogheda. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3200 BC, making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. Newgrange is the main monument in the Brú na Bóinne complex, a World Heritage Site that also includes the passage tombs of Knowth and Dowth, as well as other henges, burial mounds and standing stones.
Croagh Patrick, nicknamed 'the Reek', is a mountain with a height of 764 m (2,507 ft) and an important site of pilgrimage in County Mayo, Ireland. The mountain has a pyramid-shaped peak and overlooks Clew Bay, rising above the village of Murrisk, several miles from Westport. It has long been seen as a holy mountain. It was the focus of a prehistoric ritual landscape, and later became associated with Saint Patrick, who is said to have spent forty days fasting on the summit. There has been a church on the summit since the 5th century; the current church dates to the early 20th century. Croagh Patrick is climbed by thousands of pilgrims every year on Reek Sunday, the last Sunday in July, a custom which goes back to at least the Middle Ages.
The court cairn or court tomb is a megalithic type of chambered cairn or gallery grave. During the period, 3900–3500 BC, more than 390 court cairns were built in Ireland and over 100 in southwest Scotland. The Neolithic monuments are identified by an uncovered courtyard connected to one or more roofed and partitioned burial chambers. Many monuments were built in multiple phases in both Ireland and Scotland and later re-used in the Early Bronze Age.
Dunkery Beacon at the summit of Dunkery Hill is the highest point on Exmoor and in Somerset, England. It is also the highest point in southern England outside of Dartmoor.
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Kiltimagh is a town in County Mayo in Ireland. As of the 2016 census, the town had a population of 1,069 people. Although there is no river going through the town, three rivers flow around the town: the Glore River, Yellow River and Pollagh River. The town centre sits at the crest of a hill surrounding The High Fort in Fortlands and built out linearly on the main road from there.
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Sunhoney is a stone circle of the recumbent type, which is common in the Grampian region, in particular at the River Dee. Sunhoney is situated about 2 km west of Echt in Aberdeenshire, near to the Cullerlie and Midmar stone circles. It is designated a scheduled ancient monument
Heapstown Cairn is a cairn and National Monument located in County Sligo, Ireland.
Magheraghanrush Court Tomb is a court cairn and National Monument located in County Sligo, Ireland.
Rosdoagh Stone Circle is a court cairn and National Monument located in County Mayo, Ireland.
Eochy's Cairn is a cairn and National Monument located in County Mayo, Ireland.
Glebe Stone Circles are standing stones and National Monument located in County Mayo, Ireland.
The court tomb of Behy is a megalithic monument in the townland of the same name, near Belderrig in the north of County Mayo, Ireland. The monument is located within the Céide Fields complex, 150 meters above sea level on the slope of Maumakeogh hill, and is the most westerly of the thirty or so tombs in the Killala group. The site commands wide views across the sea to the north and to the Stags of Broadhaven. The monument is located 500 meters west of the Céide Fields Visitor Centre and is on private property.
Carrowcrom Wedge Tomb is a wedge-shaped gallery grave and National Monument located in County Mayo, Ireland.
Kealkill stone circle is a Bronze Age axial five-stone circle located just outside the village of Kealkill, County Cork in southwest Ireland. When it was excavated in 1938 it was thought the crucial axial stone indicated an alignment to the north, contrary to the general alignment of such stone circles to the southwest. However, later archaeologists have thought it is the comparatively insignificant stone to the southwest that is the axial stone. There are two associated standing stones nearby, one of which had fallen and was re-erected in 1938.
Tomnaverie stone circle is a recumbent stone circle set on the top of a small hill in lowland northeast Scotland. Construction started from about 2500 BC, in the Bronze Age, to produce a monument of thirteen granite stones including a massive 6.5-ton recumbent stone lying on its side along the southwest of the circle's perimeter. Within the 17-metre (56 ft) circle are kerb stones encircling a low 15-metre (49 ft) ring cairn but the cairn itself no longer exists.
Ballymacgibbon.