Audleystown Court Cairn

Court-tombs are among the earliest megalithic monuments to be built in Ireland and Scotland. During the period 3900–3500 BCE, more than 390 court cairns were constructed in Ireland and over 100 in southwest Scotland. The Neolithic monuments are identified by an uncovered courtyard connected to one or more roofed and partitioned burial chambers. Court tombs were possibly built in multiple phases and later re-used in the Early Bronze Age. Courts were built in a variety of shapes, with oval or circular forms predominating.

Audleystown court tomb is a dual-court tomb, with a layout which is unique to Ireland. Court tombs typically have a single courtyard and one gallery of compartmentalized burial areas, which are usually located at the wide end of the cairn. In dual-court tombs a court and a gallery are placed at each end of the cairn, as in Audleystown and Cohaw. In 1952, as part of the Archaeological Survey of Northern Ireland, A.E.P ('Pat') Collins, conducted the first archeological excavation of the Audleystown tomb and published his findings in 1954. The Ministry of Finance assumed guardianship of the site and declared it an ancient monument. After the 1952 excavation, the burial galleries were filled…