Legananny Dolmen is a megalithic

dolmen A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were somet ...

or cromlech nine miles southeast of

Banbridge Banbridge ( , ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Bann and the A1 road (Northern Ireland), A1 road and is named after a bridge built over the River Bann in 1712. It is situated in the Civil parishes in Ireland, c ...

and three miles north of

Castlewellan Castlewellan () is a small town in County Down, in the south-east of Northern Ireland close to the Irish Sea. It is beside Castlewellan Lake and Slievenaslat mountain, southwest of Downpatrick. It lies between the Mourne Mountains and Slieve C ...

, both in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

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 is on the slopes of

Slieve Croob __NOTOC__ Slieve Croob () is a mountain with a height of in the middle of County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the heart of a mountainous area known as the Dromara Hills, north of the Mourne Mountains. It is designated an Area of Outstanding Nat ...

near the village of Leitrim, in Drumgooland parish, nestled between the farmer's stone wall and a back road. It is a State Care Historic Monument sited in the

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

Legananny Legananny (believed to be ) is a townland north of Leitrim, Northern Ireland. It contains the ancient Legannany Dolmen which has stood for between 4000 and 4500 years. It is made up of three large stones standing upright with a very large ston ...

, in

Banbridge District Banbridge was a local government district in Northern Ireland. The district was one of 26 council areas formed on 1 October 1973, following the implementation of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972. The headquarters of the council ...

, at grid ref: J2887 4339. This tripod dolmen has a capstone over 3m long and 1.8m from the ground. It dates to the Neolithic period, making the monument approximately 5,000 years old. Such portal tombs were funerary sites for the disposal of the dead in Neolithic society. The heavy stones would have been dragged some distance before being set in place. The three supporting stones are unusually long and there are slight traces of a cairn which must have been far more extensive. Some urns were found underneath. The name ''Legananny'' is derived

Gallery

File:Legananny Dolmen (08), December 2009.JPG, Legananny Dolmen, December 2009 File:Legananny Dolmen (14), December 2009.JPG, Legananny Dolmen, December 2009 File:Legananny Dolmen (11), December 2009.JPG, Legannany Dolmen, December 2009 File:Legananny Dolmen (16), December 2009.JPG, Legannany Dolmen, December 2009 File:Legananny Dolmen (13), December 2009.JPG, Legananny Dolmen, December 2009

References

{{Commons category, Legananny Dolmen Archaeological sites in County Down Dolmens in Northern Ireland