The Kilfeaghan dolmen and portal tomb in County Down

In March 2020, on the last (I didn’t know it then) permissible Sunday excursion before we were locked down the first time, the destination was the Kilfeaghan dolmen on the road to Kilkeel. You’ll find the signs after killowen on the left hand side. Then up a fairly rural road, you can park and then tramp through a farming yard and some fields to site. You’ll need wellies if it’s been raining.

The dolmen itself is a portal tomb thought to be 4500 years old. The barrow or cairn is notably long and taking in the view, you can understand why this was an auspicious burial place for the ancients. By the time this was built, humans in Ireland were adopting farming and agriculture rather than the hunter gatherer life.

The top stone there is estimated to be 35 tonnes, making it one of the biggest in Ireland. We quite simply don’t know how these structures were assembled.

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