The Giant's Ring is a
henge
There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ...
monument at
Ballynahatty, near Shaw's Bridge,
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
. It was originally preserved by
Viscount Dungannon. The inscribed stone tablet on the wall surrounding the site which details Viscount Dungannon's interest was carved by Belfast stonecarver Charles A Thompson about c.1919.
The site is a State Care Historic Monument and has ASAI (Area of Significant Archaeological Interest) status.
The site consists of a circular enclosure, in diameter and in area, surrounded by a circular earthwork bank high. At least three of the five irregularly spaced gaps in the bank are intentional and possibly original. East of the centre of the enclosure is a small passage tomb with a vestigial passage facing west. There were reports of other tombs outside the enclosure, but there is no trace of these.
History
The Giant's Ring dates from the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
period and was built around 2700BC, meaning that it predates the
Egyptian pyramids. The site has had some sort of public use throughout its history. It is near the Shaw's Bridge crossing of the
River Lagan, a point which has been used as a crossing of the river since at least the
Stone Age. The original purpose of the monument was most likely as a meeting place or as a memorial to the dead.
Archaeologist Michael J. O'Kelly believed that the Giant's Ring, like hundreds of other passage tombs built in Ireland during the Neolithic period, such as
Newgrange
Newgrange ( ga, Sí an Bhrú) is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, located on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, west of Drogheda. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3200 B ...
, showed evidence for a religion which venerated the dead as one of its core principles. He believed that this "cult of the dead" was just one particular form of
European Neolithic religion, and that other megalithic monuments displayed evidence for different religious beliefs which were solar, rather than death-orientated.
In the 18th century the site was used for horse racing. A ritual site adjacent to the henge was excavated in the early 1990s by Barrie Hartwell of the
Queen's University of Belfast.
See also
*
List of archaeological sites in County Down
*
List of megalithic monuments in Ireland
This is a list of megalithic monument on the island of Ireland. Megalithic monuments are found throughout Ireland, and include burial sites (such as megalithic tombs) and ceremonial sites (such as stone circles).
See also
* Irish megalithic ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Aerial photograph of the Giant's Ring taken in 1984Photos of the Giant's Ring with rainbowAerial Drone Footage of the Giant's Ring recorded by David Doyle, 2015
{{coord, 54, 32, 25, N, 5, 57, 0, W, type:landmark, display=title
Archaeological sites in County Antrim
Geography of Belfast
Tourist attractions in County Antrim
Dolmens in Northern Ireland
Henges