Ballinran Court Tomb

Ballinran Court Tomb stood near Killowen, County Down, until road works exposed its hidden stones in 1976. Its forecourt faced the Mourne Mountains, while five or six chamber segments reached southward beneath ordinary ground. People had already taken the cairn and most burial marks before maps recorded the place, leaving only stone sockets, scattered bone and a small nest of winkle shells. The tomb became a road-side discovery because memory had forgotten what the land still held.