What is recorded here

Thirty metres of angular stone once ringed a narrow entrance on the Loughshinney headland, guiding the dead into a rectangular chamber where human bones and a tiny flint knife still lay buried. Farmers broke the circle in 1838 to widen a field, scattering giant rocks into a boundary wall that now hugs the cliff edge. The living erased the tomb to make room for crops, yet the dead remain trapped inside the scattered stones, waiting for someone to remember the shape they lost.

Situated on a small headland south of Loughshinney village. Prior to c. 1838 the site comprised a circular cairn (diam. c. 30m) with a funnel-shaped entrance and a rectangular chamber (L 2.4m; Wth 1.8m). Human bones were found in the chamber and midden material containing a possible microlith (DU008-013003)-) was found underneath (Newenham 1838, 247; Flanagan 1984, 15). Two cist burials were found in the cairn and a third W of the kerbstones (DU008-013002-).The cairn was partially removed by land improvement in 1838, the remainder incorporated into a field boundary. Remains of this field boundary extend almost from the cliff edge for c. 21m NS. Large stones (> 1m diam.) and small stone cairn material are visible within the overgrown field boundary. One large boulder is out lying c.2m south-east of the field boundary. No markings or decoration visible on these stones. Magnetic gradiometry undertaken by the Discovery Programme (Licence 08R247) did not succeed in establishing a location for the passage tomb as a large part of the area had been subject to intensive ploughing. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Updated by: Christine Baker Date of upload: 15 December 2014

Neolithic passage tomb, dating to approximately 3000–2500 BCE. Its significance lies in its structural features, including a funnel-shaped entrance and chamber, typical of early Neolithic funerary architecture in the region.

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