What is recorded here

Two weathered stones still stand apart on a Louth roadside, incorporated into a fence and stripped of most of their chamber. They belong to a court tomb, a place where people may have gathered to bury the dead and mark the land before roads or fields existed. What is left is small, yet it preserves the shape of an older ceremony now reduced to a narrow gap between standing rocks.

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 29 August 2007 This tomb is very ruined. The remains consist of two orthostats, 2.4m apart and aligned WSW-ENE, with a large, horizontally-laid stone set beside and perpendicular to one of the orthostats; the two latter stones are incorporated in a roadside fence. The OS field trace records that there was formerly 'a large flat stone resting on 2 others' (6-inch map 4, revision 1862). Excavation of the area to the north of the stones as part of the NRA work on the M1 Dundalk Western Bypass in 2005 demonstrated that the remains are those of a court tomb.

A portal dolmen dating to the Neolithic period; it represents an early form of megalithic monument associated with burial and ritual practices in Ireland. Its construction reflects the sophisticated stone-working capabilities and social organisation of Neolithic communities in the region.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.