Dooey's Cairn, or Ballymacaldrack Court Tomb, is a prehistoric site of the
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
period, situated near
Dunloy, in
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
.
It is named after Andrew Dooey, who owned the land; the monument was granted to the state in 1975 by his family. It is maintained by the
Northern Ireland Environment Agency
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) is an executive agency within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). It is responsible for conservation of Northern Ireland's environment and natural heritage.
Ori ...
.
[
]
Description
Court tombs, or court cairns, are of the Neolithic period (c. 4000 to 2000 BC). There are about 400 in Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
, and most of them are in the northern half of the island. A court tomb has an open area, bounded by upright slabs or drystone walling, in front of a chamber. It is thought that a ritual or social event took place here.
Dooey's Cairn is well preserved. Court tombs are usually aligned north–south, but here the U-shaped court, defined by eleven upright slabs, faces south-west of a small roofless chamber; two portal stones are at the entrance to the chamber. Excavation in 1935 found polished stone axes beneath the portal stones.["Dooey's Cairn"]
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council. Retrieved 7 October 2020.["Dooey's Cairn - Neolithic Court Grave"]
culturenorthernisland.com. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
''Megalithic Ireland''. Retrieved 7 October 2020.[
Four pots found during excavation are now in the ]Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures ...
."Dooey's Cairn pottery"
''A History of the World''. BBC. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
See also
* Irish megalithic tombs
Megalithic monuments in Ireland typically represent one of several types of megalithic tombs: court cairns, passage tombs, portal tombs and wedge tombs. The remains of over 1,000 such megalithic tombs have been recorded around Ireland.
Types Co ...
* List of megalithic monuments in Ireland
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
{{reflist
Buildings and structures completed in the 4th millennium BC
Buildings and structures completed in the 3rd millennium BC
Archaeological sites in County Antrim
Megalithic monuments in Northern Ireland
State Care Monuments of Northern Ireland