What is recorded here

Megalithic tomb in Ballymartin (knocktopher By.) stands on rough pasture above the Arrigle River, its ruined gallery stretching four metres east to west. Seven stones still mark the chamber, though one at the west end was deliberately shattered and the cavity beside it dug open. The broken alignment and displaced slabs suggest people entered, changed the chamber, and left it altered rather than abandoned.

On rough pasture at the head of the shallow valley of a stream that runs N to the Arrigle River. It comprises a ruined gallery (L c. 4m; av. Wth 1m), aligned E - W. Four stones form the S side and there are three on the N. The W stone of the latter is displaced and appears to have been deliberately shattered. Two other loose slabs lie at this end of the gallery which appears to have been dug out. A doubling of the gallery wall is suggested by a single stone immediately outside its N side and there is a buttress-like stone outside the S side of the gallery. Traces of an enclosing mound survive on the N, W and S sides. Though the orientation and some of the structural details are suggestive of it being a wedge tomb the monument is best left unclassified. (Moore 1849, 12; Borlase 1897, vol. 2, 405, Knocktopher no. 7; Powell 1941, 22, no. 32). Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 10 May 2021

Megalithic tomb in Ballymartin is a Neolithic passage tomb, dating to approximately 3500–2500 BCE. Its alignment and structural remains suggest it was part of a broader ritual landscape associated with early farming communities in the region.

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