Wedge Tomb from Craigarogan

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Drawing around 1900
Craigarogan

Craigarogan (also known as Carn Greine or Granny's Grave) is located near Ballymartin-Water, 200 meters north of the hamlet of Roughfort , about 4.0 km southeast of Templepatrick and northwest of Glengormley in County Antrim in Northern Ireland . Granny's Grave is a fake of Grania's Grave, and Carn Greine is called Sonnencairn.

It is a low, overgrown, megalithic wedge tomb about 9 feet long. At the southwest end there is a closed, polygonal chamber, which is covered by a single stone 1.8 meters in diameter. A plan drawn in the early 19th century shows a long gallery made of rock covered by a series of capstones that decrease in height from front to back, which is typical of Wedge Tombs. Its orientation also matches the type, as does the antechamber, which appears as a dolmen-like structure in front of the gallery. This indicates that the unusual system, which was previously considered a degenerate or transitional form of a passage tomb, is a wedge tomb. It is located in an area where Passage Tombs (now destroyed) were built by late Neolithic people who came to the island from Great Britain.

It seems that the megalithic complex was located in a round hill and was surrounded by a curb ring. Records from 1838 record that the temple was surrounded by two stone circles. While the inner one was likely the curb ring of the vanished cairn , it's possible that the outer one had a surrounding moat, suggesting that this could have been both a sacred place and a burial place. A reference to its function may be in the old name Carn Greine, by which it is known locally. An encrusted urn that was taken from the grave at the beginning of the last century indicates the Bronze Age .

About 7.0 km to the northwest is the Lochstein of Doagh .

literature

  • Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland: Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland. An Introduction and Guide. 6th edition, 2nd imprint. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Belfast 1987, ISBN 0-337-08180-8 , p. 70.

Web links

Coordinates: 54 ° 41 '23.4 "  N , 6 ° 1' 52.7"  W.