Armagh

The remains of a possible chambered tomb consist of two large standing stones about 3m high by 1m by 30cm. They stand at right angles to each other and there are at least four other stones about 1m square.

A three-chambered gallery, about 8m long, leads from a semicircular court. The court is about 6m deep and 4m wide. It features the post-and-panel building technique i.e. large orthostats with the spaces between constructed of dry stone walling. The highest stone in the court is about 1.7m and the highest in the gallery about 1m. During excavation a small standing stone was found in the court. It was re-erected but is now missing. At the rear of the cairn there are two subsidiary graves.

The Franciscan friary was founded by Archbishop O'Scannail in 1263. It played an important part in the city's religious life until the suppression in 1542. The remains consist mainly of the W gable of a 13th century church with part of the arcade of a S aisle. Excavation in the 1960s revaled traces of a N cloister.

This is a single-chambered structure with no capstone. The chamber is made from two large slabs about 1.25m high by 2m long, and a backstone about 1m square. There are two portals-stones about 1m high with a small doorstone between them. The chamber is about 1m in all dimensions.

This stone is about 1.5m high by 50cm thick and tapering. It has rounded edges and leans slightly to the south. At the north edge, about 30cm from the top, is a slight shoulder. The enclosure in which the stone stands also contains some circulars settings of small stones and may have been a stack yard.

There are two ruined churches at Killevy. They are aligned in a row E-W and are joined by later walling. The older west church has a lintelled W doorway which may date from the 10th or 11th century. The rest of the church may be 12th century. There is a small round-headed E window. In the S wall is a low doorway which, ubtil recently, was blocked by a stone basin. The larger east church ha a large E window with decorated label stops featuring carved masks of a king and queen. A third mask of a bishop may have existed at the apex of the window arch. There are doorways in the N and S walls. There is a large cross-inscribed stone leaning against the outer E wall od rhe west church. This is an early grave marker. The foundation of a small rectangular building just outside the early W doorway is sometimes taken as evidence of the former existence of a Round Tower but there is no proof of this. St Monenna or Bline founded a nunnery on this site in the 5th century and the holy well and rag-tree on the nearby hillside bear her name.

This tripod dolmen stands at the south end of a long cairn. It is formed of two tall portal-stones, with a high sill-stone between them, and a lower backstone, supporting a huge, flat capstone. Excavation revealed a small stone cist at the northern end of the cairn and there were plentiful finds of Neolithic pottery. Prior to excavation the baxksrone had split and the rear edge of the capstone rested on the ground. During conservation and restoration the backstone was repaired and the portal-stones were embedden in concrete below ground level. The capstone was then lifted into place. It is probably one of the best examples of sympathetic restoration.

This tomb has a very deep D-shaped court which may have been totally enclosed. It is about 7m wide and 5m deep. There are three burial chambers in the gallery which is about 6m long. There are good divisions between the chambers and parts of the corbelled roof survive. There is possibly a small displaced capstone. Excavation in 1962 revealed some Neolithic pottery and flints.

This ruined church was built in the 17th century but probably replaces a much earlier structure. It cintinued in use until its repalcement in the 19th century. It is a rectangular building with a double bell-cot on the west gable and a doorway in the west wall. There are some round-headed windows. There are very many plain grave markers in the graveyard. There are irregular flat slabs, some of which have inscriptions dating them to the mid-18th century. There are a number of 19th century memorial stones including some with angels heads. The graveyard is the rsting place of Florence MacMoyer (d.1713). He was the last hereditary keeper of the Book of Armagh which he pawned for £5. He was also the chief informer who brought about the execution of Oliver Plunkett.

This souterrain is entered through a short unlined tunnel. Just inside the entrance part of the roof has collapsed. The main passage is blocked after about 15m and may be seen beyond the blockage for about another 5m. The passage is divided into three sections by two rising-hole creeps. Between the creeps is a side passage opening into a small chamber about 3m long. It has a ventilation shaft and a spy-hole leading into the main passage. One of the lintels at the entrance to the side passage is split.

Moyry Castle stands on the hillside near Kilnasaggart Stone. It is a small rectangular tower three storeys high. It has rounded corners, gun-loops and a machicolation over the doorway. There is a fireplace at first floor level and some fragmentary remains of the bawn wall. The castle was built in 1601 by Lord Mountjoy to help secure Moyry Pass and the Gap of the North.

This is a boulder, about 1m by 1m by 70cm thick, set into a field boundary. On the north face is a deeply incised cross about 80cm high by 60cm across. It has a small unpierced ring about 20cm diameter. Scattered on top of the rock are some coins and the bush beside it was formerly used as a rag-tree. A souterrain is known to exist along the western field field boundary and close to this, in the next field, is a small standing stone.

This monument is greatly overgrown with whin and there is a lot of rubble dumped on the site. It is very badly damaged and only about half of the court remains. It is unusual in that there is a small burial chamber in the western arm of the court. This is about 1.5m long by 1m wide and 1m high. The length of the main gallery is about 8m suggesting that there may have been three or four burial chambers, but there are no dividing stones visible. There is at least one capstone, not in place, about 2m square. The tomb is situated at the western edge of a low cairn about 20m diameter and there are some traces of a kerb.

This monument consists of a circular cairn about 9m diameter and 1m high. It encloses a single rectangular chamber with a large, now broken, capstone. The chamber is about 1.5m long by 1m wide and 1m high, and the capstone is about 2m long by 1.5m wide. There is an orthostat just outside the chamber which suggests an ante-chamber. The structure is classified as a portal tomb but is not a typical example and in some ways resembles a large megalithic cist.

This monument was badly damaged in the 19th century but the remains are still impressive. It is known locally as "The King's Ring". The court is not as full as those at Ballymacdermot and Clonlum but it contains some very large stones, some of which are over 2m high. The first burial chamber is fairly intact and has some lintels in place. Some of the smaller stones in this area may have been inserted fairly recently when the chamber appears to have been used as a stone hut. Some large stones to the rear of the chamber now form part of a field boundary and may be all that remains of the rest of the gallery. There is very little cairn material.

This is a very impressive rath about 40m diameter. There is a substantial inner bank which is intact except on the west. Outside are a massive ditch and a large outer bank. The total diameter is about 70m.There isa clear entrance causeway in the east with a smaller causeway in the south-west. Just off centre is the entrance to a small L-shaped souterrain about 10m long and 1m square throughout. The floor of the inner section of the souterrain is covered with thick deep mud.

This fragmentary castle stands on a rocky outcrop surrounded by beech trees. Only the W wall remains to 3 storeys high. The large opening at the ground floor was probably a doorway since there are traces of jambs at the bottom. There is a large window recess above this opening showing traces of wicker centering. The castle was vaulted above the first floor, traces of the vault including wicker-marks remain. There are remains of mural passages at the first and second floors. There may have been a spiral stairway at the NW corner. A curved setting of stones suggests this. There are many loose stones at the site but no traces of other walls.

This rath is circular with a straight eastern edge. There is a good inner bank up to 1.5m high and traces of a shallow ditch. There is no outer bank.

This standing stone is 1.5m high and 80cm wide (N-S) by 70cm wide (E-W) at the base. It is 45cm wide (N-S) by 20cm wide (E-W) at the top. The W face is flat. The E face has a sharp shoulder about 25cm above the base. The N face has a sharp shoulder 80cm above the base and the S face has a gentle shoulder at a similar level.

This tall thin granite pillar is reckoned to be the earliest datable Christian monument in Ireland. On the SE face is a long inscription in Irish which records the dedication of the place by Ternohc, con of Ceran Bic under the patronage of Peter the Apostle. Ternohc's death is recorded in 714 or 716 and the pillar can be reasonably dated to about 700. There are also three crosses on the SE face and ten crosses onthe NW face. Excavations in the 1960s revealed an Early Christian cemetery and some small cross-inscribed slabs which may have served as grave-markers.

There are two standing stones less than 2m high and about 50cm wide. Between them lies a third stone of similar dimensions, forming an alignment N-S approximately. A similar fourth stone lies a short distance to the east.

A short distance to the north of Ballykeel Bridge are the remains of a megalithic tomb. Three stones form part of a chamber. One stone is about 2m long by 30cm thick and less than 1m high. The other stones are about 1m long. The tomb is built into a field boundary.

This cashel is about 50m diameter. The walls are less than 1m high on the inside but higher on the outside. The original wall is missing in the west and is replaced by a curving field boundary. The remaining wall is about 2m thick. There is a gap in the NW corner but no obvious entrance.

This cashel is about 40m diameter with walls about 3m thick and less than 1.5m high. There is a small cairn in the centre. Part of the cashel is fenced off to form the back garden of a house which is built just outside the wall to the north. There are a number of small gaps in the wall but no obvious entrance.

This is a very fine rath with three banks and two ditches. Towards the north edge is a small mound with some depressions which may indicate the presence of a souterrain and possibly a house platform. The diameter of the rath platform is about 42m. The middle bank is about 11m wide and the inner ditch is shallow. This suggests that the original rath platform may have extended to the outer edge of the middle bank. The inner ditch may have been a later modification which made the inner defensible area much smaller. Such a large inner platform is not typical of raths and suggests that Lisleitrim may have been a ceremonial site which was later adapted for use as a defended farmstead. There is a crannog in nearby Lisleitrim Lough.

This rath is about 40m diameter and is fairly intact. The defences on the north and east are missing but elsewhere there is an inner bank, a massive ditch and an outer bank. The ditch may have been 3m wide in places and the total height from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank may be 5m.

This Early Christian monument has a high circular platform, at least 30m diameter, surrounded by a substantial ditch and an outer bank. There are some fragments of an inner bank but no traces of house platforms or souterrains.

This has been identified as Eamhain Macha, chief residence of the Kings of Ulster, which was traditionally destroyed in 332 AD. It is a large circular enclosure occupying the summit of a low hill. It is surrounded by a deep and wide ditch outside of which is a large bank. To the NW of centre is a large mound about 40m diameter. This was extensively excavated and reconstructed in the 1960s and 1970s. The earliest find were Neolithic. A series of circular timbers huts were built in the middle of the first millennium BC. These were replaced by a massive structure built of concentric rings of timber posts round a central post. This structure was later filled with stones and burned. A mound of sods and clay was built over the remaining stone cairn to a height of about 5m.

This monument stands on the south summit of Slieve Gullion with a commanding view of most of East Ulster and a large part of North Leinster. The method of construction is unlike other passage tombs in that the large stones are laid flat rather than upright. A passage about 5m long leads to a corbelled chamber about 3m diameter. It is polygonal with a recess at the back. The roof has been partly reconstructed using concrete beams. There are two crude basin stones. The entrance passage is mode than 1m high and wide and is partly blocked by fallen cairn material. The cairn has a small bulge on the north side.

This round cairn is near the north summit of Slieve Gullion. Excavation in 1963 revealed two small cists. One of them contained fragments of food vessel pottery and some burnt bone. This suggests an Early Bronze Age date.

St Vindic founded an Early Christian monastery near the site of Tynan Parish Church. Little is known of its early history but two crosses survive, the Village Cross and the Terrace Cross (now in the grounds of Tynan Abbey). There are fragments of another cross built into the graveyard wall. The Village Cross is a composite of the base and lower shaft of one cross with the head and upper shaft of another. On the E face of the lower shaft is a rectangular panel showing Adam & Eve, and on the W face is another panel with a large figure in front of smaller figures. The head of the cross has an open ring and is decorated with tall bosses.