Becca Allen (Member no: 1399)

Tirnony Dolmen & Beaghmore stone circles

BheToday on Saint Patrick's Day, I visited Tirnony Dolmen on Tirnony Road, Maghera, County Londonderry. It sits right off the road and is very impressive. And then onto the ludicrous and magical Beaghmore stone circles near Cookstown. 7 mystical circles, 10 rows of stones and 12 cairns, carefully arranged.

Today on Saint Patrick's Day, I visited Tirnony Dolmen on Tirnony Road, Maghera, County Londonderry. It sits right off the road and is very impressive. And then onto the ludicrous and magical Beaghmore stone circles near Cookstown. 7 mystical circles, 10 rows of stones and 12 cairns, carefully arranged.

Bheitheach Mhór, meaning ‘big place of birch trees’ was once a dense woodland before being cleared by Neolithic farmers. The circles and alignments were discovered in the late 1930s during peat cutting when 1,269 stones were uncovered. The site and the surrounding bog indicate that the area was occupied from Neolithic times through the Bronze Age.  Hearths and deposits of flint tools have been carbon dated to 2900-2600BC.  Some of the stones also have Ogham writing. Very special place. It also reputedly had Hungry Grass or féar gortach too, patches of grass which curse anyone stepping on it to a life of insatiable hunger.