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Carrowkeel

Caves of Kesh

Kesh Cairn

Knocknarea
Inishowen
Inishmurray
Glencolmcille
Benbulben
Heapstown
Carrowmore
Cairns Hill
Tobernalt
The Ceide Fields
Loughcrew
Lough Arrow
Cong
Knockma
Knocknashee
Sheemor
Newgrange
Macalister's guide
Knowth
Satellites at Knowth
Dowth
The Burren
Kilmonaster
Croagh Patrick
Moytura
The Labby Rock
The Glen
Tara
Uisneach

One of the three small chambers at the west end of the cairn.

A font-like stone collects water and offerings.

The large end or keystone and corbells.

Looking east across the chamber and court.

Creeveykeel court cairn

This site is said to be one of the largest court cairns in Ireland. It is a very easy site to visit, as it is right by the Sligo - Donegal N16 road, 1.5 km north of the village of Cliffoney. There is a parking space signposted, but it is easy to miss on this fast and dangerous road. Ten steps from the carpark is the cairn, which fills its own small field.

Creeveykeel, near Cliffoney village, with Mullaghmore, and Sliabh League
across Donegal Bay, beyond.

The cairn is quite a massive wedge shaped pile of stones arranged on an east/west axis. The chamber and court open to the east. The cairn measures 35 x 10 meters, with the wide edge to the east and tapers away to a tail on the west end. A narrow passage leads into the massive inner court, which can easily hold 100 people. The court measures 15 x 10 meters.

The standing stones (orthostats) around the court are quite massive chunks of local limestone studded with pieces of quartz. They get larger approaching the opening at the rear of the court, which gives access to an inner chamber, now roofless but which was originaly covered with massive corbels, making an artificial cave. There are three smaller chambers at the western end of the monument, two on the north side and one on the south side. These are quite different to the main chamber, and are considered by some archaeologists to be small passage graves.

The site was excavated in 1935 by the Harvard archaeological mission. They found a number of stone balls, typically found in round chambered cairns, and two polished stone axe-heads, which were buried beneath thresholds. There were four pits found in the inner chamber, which contained cremated human remains, a flint scraper, some flint flakes and a chert flake. Other finds from the inner chamber included a large flint knife, arrowheads,pot sherds, some quartz crystals, and more flint scrapers.

Looking west into the court and chamber at Creeveykeel.

Pottery sherds and flakes of flint and crystal were found in the two smaller chambers in the west end of the cairn, and no burials. Evidence of large fires - cremated bone and charcoal were found in the court. It was also discovered that the monument was expanded a few times. It began as a smaller monument with an open court, which was eventually enlarged and lengthened into a full enclosed court. Revetments were found in the sides of the cairn, where there were probably drystone walls originally holding up the sides of the monument.

The round feature in the court proved to be an Iron age smelting pit, where metal was worked. This addition would have been added perhaps 4,000 years after the original construction of the monument. The Iron age smiths appear to have liked working in ancient sites and unusual places such as megaliths and crannogs. Megaliths seem to have held some magical properties in relation to metalwork.

Other monuments in the area:

There were originaly six more megalithic monuments in this area, but very little remains of any of the sites in comparison to Creeveykeel. Two of the megaliths are covered in thorn bushes and brambles, and few of the stones can be seen. The monument which was located about 200 meters north of Creeveykeel seems to have dissappeared completely. There is a largely complete but much smaller court cairn on the west slope of a drumlin in Bunduff, about 1.5 km to the west, and the stones of the chamber of another beside Mermaid's cove near the sea shore beyond Bunduff.

A large monument, probably another court cairn still exists on a farm 1 km east of Cliffoney crossroads. A long gallery and massive end slab are in the farmyard, and sometimes used to store stakes and other fencing materials. Wakeman's illustration is reproduced below. He gives the name Toomnaformire (The Grave of the Great Man), which appears to be a folk memory of the Formorians, who are said to have had a fortress at nearby Mullaghmore.

There are several notable ringforts close by, including a large, well preserved example just up the Ballintrillick road from Cliffoney village, on the left.

A megalithic monument, probably a court cairn, which was located beside Creeveykeel, now destroyed. Illustration Wakeman, August 1880.

There is a beautiful early Christian cross slab at St Brigit's well in Cliffoney village. Access is difficult, as the slab is on private land, even though it is quite close to the road. The slab stands under a statue of Brigit, and has an early swastika carved at the top of the cross. You can see Wakeman's illustration, based on a rubbing, left.