Beaghmore : Stone Circle

Saturday, 27th July 2002

I was running around this place like a kid in a sweetshop! Seven stone circles, all with associated alignments in one field! What more can you ask for? The crazy thing is they didn't excavate the whole site - what else lies beneath the peat? One can only wonder.

There are three pairs of circles and one solo one exposed. Two of the pairs (A&B and C&D) actually touch each other. Long stone rows eminate from the join travelling in one direction (with no apparently obvious solar alignment) and a cairn sits at the join too. This gives the impression of an old lace tie.

The third pair (F&G) lie somewhat isolated and do not quite meet. G has two large stones that look like entrance stones, but only one of these is in the line of the circle, the other is slightly out of line.

Circle E is incredible. Like the others it is only made up of stones about 40cm high, but the centre is full of jagged little stones almost covering the entire centre. This circle was nicknamed "The Dragon's Teeth" and with good reason. A larger cairn is situated close to this.

The rows of stones range from 7m in length to 30m and the shorter rows have stones reaching 1.6m, whereas the longer ones are of lower stones.

In all there are 13 cairns exposed, each one just 2.6m or so in diameter. Criss-crossing the site are older field walls, indicating that the site was previously farmland. This is a mind blowing place.

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Monday, 4th August 2003

Oh dear! I'd just phoned home to say I was on my way back, when I drive past the end of Beaghmore Road. Oh dear! I just had to turn around and head straight on over, the bright sun light was just too good.

As I arrived someone drove off. I was quite glad about this as I really did want to be greedy and have this wonderful place to myself. I would have loved to have stayed for the sunset - I think it would have been truly wonderful - but I had already promised to be home. Maybe next time.

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Sunday, 4th January 2004

I drove past here twice today, but it was too rainy to stop. Very annoying. However, I did notice something interesting while doing so.

Beaghmore Road runs west-east towards the townland and terminates at a junction next to a hill called Blackrock. The road that runs north-south past the Beaghmore complex is Blackrock Road. When driving east along Beaghmore Road the hill, Blackrock, looks suspiciously like a recumbent sleeping figure. That's right another one. Is it coincidence that the stone circle complex is built 300m to the north of this?

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Saturday, 4th June 2005

If you're taking someone to see sites in the north how can you not come to Beaghmore!? The scale of this site still amazes me. The gardians of the site have recently put down weedkiller around all the stones. This does make them a lot clearer to see, but does leave nasty brown 'stains' around them. I'm not sure I approve, but I do know that the stones would not be looked after if someone had to cut the grass around and between the stones each week.

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Sunday, 8th January 2006

The main plan for today's trip was to end it at Beaghmore. Sadly the weather was just too grim, so I came here before heading off to Copney to try and find the circles there.

I did take some nice pictures though. Amazingly, even on a day like this one, people still turned up to look around while I was there.

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Sunday, 18th October 2009

If you are in the area with someone who has not been to this site how can you not stop here? Another question is: why does it always rain when I bring someone else here? When I visit alone it is often a nice day, but when I plan to bring someone else it rains.

No matter how many times I visit this place it never ceases to amaze me. Despite visiting it on poor days it never ceases to amaze the people I bring here, too. That's the sign of a great monument.

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