Dooey's Cairn

Dooey's Cairn is the only Irish court tomb with a cremation passage, a rare feature that turns a common Neolithic shape into a unique chamber of death. Built near Dunloy around 3000 BC, it aligns south-west instead of the usual north-south, forcing attention to its own terms. The passage held cremated bones of five or six adults, suggesting these people were not merely buried but transformed before being kept inside the stone. Andrew Dooey's family gave the land to the state in 1975, freeing the cairn from private ownership and returning it to public memory.