An amazing example of a court tomb . The 5m long gallery is open topped, but the court and kerb are fantastic! The court is 7m deep by 7m wide and formed from massive stones, some of which are covered in the most vivid lichen I have ever seen. This lichen also appears on one group of stones in the kerb too.
This very accessible site's only drawback is that like so many sites under state care the enclosure is far too small. You can not stand back and look at the monument properly.
This is a great site which, sadly, has had a lot of ambience killed off by the proximity of the enclosure fence, which itself is not too overpowering, just too close.
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_______Early on a winter morning is not the ideal time to visit this site. The tall trees along the south edge of the enclosure are too tall and they cast a shadow over the whole site. It was nice to see it encrusted in frost, though.
I think there has been a new information sign erected just inside the entrance to the enclosure around the tomb. I certainly don't remember seeing it there on my previous visit. The old sign opposite the court is still there.
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______Dooey's Cairn is well signposted from the B16 1km southeast of Dunloy.
This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |