Stone Age Monuments in Ireland

There is no evidence of human habitation in Ireland during the Old Stone Age (the Palaeolithic period). According to the present state of archaeological knowledge, the first people arrived in Ireland sometime after the end of the Ice Age and before 7000 BC during the Middle Stone Age (the Mesolithic period). They settled on the coast and in river valleys, securing their food by hunting and fishing as well as gathering shellfish and hazel-nuts. Their artefacts include flint-headed spears and arrows. These people are believed to have led nomadic lives, and built no permanent structures such as houses or tombs. Some archaeological evidence of this period has been found in various parts of Ireland.

The first farmers appear on present evidence to have arrived in Ireland about five and a half thousand years ago during the Neolithic (New Stone) Age, long before the dawn of recorded history. We know this because they introduced a custom of burying their dead in great tombs made with large rough stones, and the remains of some of these burial chambers have been found around the country. These ancient tombs are known as megalithic tombs, from the Greek words megas (great) and lithos (stone), because they were, in most cases, constructed with large unhewn stones. A megalithic tomb consists of a burial chamber or chambers with an entrance at one end, generally constructed with large upright stones and roofed with lintels or corbels, as well as a covering cairn or mound. There are over 1,500 of these impressive monuments to be seen in the Irish countryside.

In the literature on archaeology, Irish megalithic tombs are divided into four classes: court-tombs, portal-tombs, passage-tombs and wedge-tombs, each type named after its chief diagnostic feature, and are the earliest surviving architectural structures in the country. Each class of tomb probably represents a new major colonisation of the country by a different group of people. Each group brought their own customs, which complemented and, in some cases, altered the existing Irish culture, and in due course became assimilated into it. These Neolithic settlers were an enterprising and well-organised people who resided in small self-sufficient farming communities, clearing forests, growing crops, rearing cattle, making pottery and cloth, as well as erecting great stone burial chambers for their dead.

Some archaeologists consider court-tombs to be the earliest of the megalithic tombs in Ireland. They are part of a European custom of building such tombs during the third and fourth millennia BC. A court-tomb is a Neolithic burial-gallery, which is divided by jambs into two or more rectangular chambers, with a ceremonial unroofed courtyard in front (hence the name). The courtyard is surrounded by a wall of large upright stones and/or drystone walling. Two well-matched jambstones are erected at the entrance from the court to the gallery. Cairns on Irish court-tombs vary in length from 20 m to 60 m and the width is usually about half the length. Court-tombs were used as communal burial places, generally cremations, but some inhumations also took place. Their distribution is across the northern part of Ireland, especially Mayo, with the highest number for any county, Galway, Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal and some other northern counties.

A portal-tomb is a Neolithic burial-chamber consisting of a massive capstone resting on two well-matched upright stones, known as portals, and a backstone. The heavier end of the capstone rests on the portals and slopes down towards the backstone. Usually, the sides of the chamber consist of stone slabs resting against portals and a backstone, which thus form a large stone box and the actual burial-chamber. It is normally a single chamber. Some believe that portal tombs pre-date the court-tombs, while others claim that they evolved from them. The distribution of portal-tombs is in the northern part of the country, but two of the best known in the country are situated at Poulnabrone, County Clare, and Kernanstown, County Carlow.

A passage-tomb is a Neolithic burial-chamber constructed under a circular mound or cairn, with an entrance passage and a surrounding kerb. The passages into the burial-chambers of such tombs are usually roofed with lintels, but the chambers often have beautiful corbelled roofs. A single set of side-chambers and an end-chamber, giving a cruciform design, is a common feature in Irish passage-tombs. The best-known passage-tombs in Ireland are those in the Boyne Valley: Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth; Loughcrew in County Meath; Carrowkeel and Carrowmore in County Sligo.

The last type of megalithic tomb to make its appearance on the Irish landscape was the wedge-tomb, a relatively simple structure when compared with earlier tombs. A wedge-tomb is a late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age burial chamber, consisting of a long, narrow, sub-rectangular structure, built with stone slabs, often narrowing and declining in height towards the back (hence the name), with a slab roof; it is believed that some may have been covered by a mound or cairn. Most wedge-tombs have only single chambers, which vary in length from 2 m to 14 m. The entrance generally faces in a south-westerly direction. Wedge-tombs are more widespread in Ireland than the other types of tombs, with big concentrations in Cork, Kerry, Clare, Mayo and Sligo.

The remains of some megalithic tombs are at present so badly damaged, overgrown, or full of debris, that they cannot be accurately identified from observation, and are consequently recorded as unclassified megalithic tombs in the literature. Past generations of Irish people, from the Neolithic Age to the present, have left a rich heritage, and this and future generations can leave no greater legacy to posterity than by leaving untouched the many fine antiquities which adorn its landscape.

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