First of all I would like to thank the local historical society for the work they have done at this wonderful double court tomb. The path from the road, across what would otherwise be a boggy field, is very nicley done. My only complaint is that the very informative notice board is too close to the tomb.
As you walk along this path from the road the orthostats are all hiden behing a massive bank of cairn material, which is over 2m high. Actually rounding the end of this cairn and seeing the tomb for the first time is quite special.
The structure is roughly northeast-southwest aligned with a double chambered gallery at each end. The north tomb (which is the first one that you see) has some very fine court stone and a great pair of door jambs - one of which has a deep cup mark or solution pit. There are also three shallow ones on it too. This northern court has 3 stones to the left and 3 stones standing to the right of the entrance. One of the stones to the left is almost 2m tall. The first chamber of the gallery at this end is 3m long and the second is 2.5m in length and features a nicely pointed backstone.
The south court is quite different from the north. It is made from smaller orthostats and has quite weak looking, thin entrance stones. 5 stones remain of the court to the left of the entrance and just 2 to the right. The gallery is divided in a similar manner to the north gallery, but the backstone is not pointed. There is a 1.5m gap between the two backstones.
Several roofstones lie along the sides of the galleries.
The cairn was excavated in the 1890s and very little was found. There were no burials and the only finds were an arrow head and wrist guard. These would be at least 1000 years younger than the tomb itself, leaving quite a few questions unanswered.
The name of this townland comes from a folkloric story that the tomb was once the home of a population of fairy cats. These cats had hooks in the end of their tails which they used to use to drag sheafs of wheat to the cairn for the other fairies. This was the most important mythical site in the region.
The views are not that impressive or suggestive. The tomb is located on a low rolling platform with just nondescript hills around it. However, it's a beautiful place to sit and paint, which is exactly what I tried to do.
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_All Sites Visited On 8th June 2003 « Previous Site Next Site »
It was good to come back here, especially on a day when the midges weren't out in force biting me to death! It was also good to see that the site is still being well looked after and that there is no vandalism and rubbish etc. I do wonder, though, why there aren't any signs to the site from the main road. After going to all this effort to make the site accessible and to clean it up why not promote it a bit more? As someone once said, Folks don't go antwhere these days unless there's a sign!
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_All Sites Visited On 4th June 2005 « Previous Site Next Site »
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_A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments
 Dog Little (Co. Fermanagh) |  Carnanmore (Co. Antrim) |  Ally (Co. Tyrone) |
 Creggandevesky (Co. Tyrone) |  Aghnaglack (Co. Fermanagh) |  Annaghmare (Co. Armagh) |
