Built Heritage of Mourne AONB

Prehistoric man in the Mournes was either very strong or an excellent engineer! The skill and organisation it would take to raise the granite capstone of Kilfeaghan Dolman (estimated weight 35 tons) would challenge even modern technology. Even more incredible is the tripod dolmen at Legananny where the flat granite capstone is raised high on three tall pointed stones. The beauty of these ancient tombs has made them a favourite subject for photographers and artists. 5000 years ago, when the dolmens were built, they were accompanied by a cairn of small stones, but often the cairn and even some of the giant stones disappear in time leaving only the heaviest stones.

Sites to visit

Slidderyford Dolmen

A good example of a tripod dolmen with large capstone and supporting uprights, opposite entrance to Murlough sand dunes.

Dunnaman (Massfort) Court Grave

Court graves were used like family vaults for multiple burials. Dunnaman has an unusually long burial gallery, marked out with split granite side stones and divided into four sections. Approached by a footpath north from the A2 beside the parochial house at Massfort.

Kilfeaghan Dolmen

A granite portal dolmen with a gigantic capstone and the remains of a long cairn. Signposted north of the A2 just west of the Causeway Water and along a path across two fields.

Kilbroney Standing Stone

In the field south of Kilbroney graveyard, 1 mile north of Rostrevor on the B25. There are many standing stones in the Mournes, mostly single like this one, but some in groups.

Legananny Dolmen

On the south side of Slieve Croob with a panoramic view of the Mourne mountains. Tripod dolmen with capstone gracefully balanced on three tall supporting stones.

Castles

The Anglo-Norman invasion of 1177 and continued challenges by the Magennises encouraged the building and maintenance of castles in this area from the late 12th up to the 17th century. Anglo-Norman castles were established at Clough and Dundrum in the late 12th and 13th century. In the 16th century a second wave of castle building began with tower-houses at Narrow Water, Castlewellan, Newcastle, Newry and Rathfriland. Only Narrow Water survives of this group, so we cannot visit a true Magennis castle, though they did capture and held castles at Dundrum and Narrow Water.

Clough Castle

An excellent example of an Anglo-Norman earthwork castle of the late 12th or early 13th century. The taller mound, the motte, was built of earth to provide a look-out position and the central defence. When excavated its top was found to have a wooden palisade, a stone hall across the centre and a stone tower half the size of the present one. The lower platform, the bailey provided a space for other domestic buildings and livestock. In the 15th century the look-out tower was enlarged to the size of a tower-house. When you climb the motte you realise what an important position the castle is in, over looking the routes east to Downpatrick, south to Dundrum and north to Belfast Lough. The views from the top of the motte west to Slieve Croob are particularly fine.

Dundrum castle

A key castle in the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ulster in the late 12th century, on the site of a pre-Norman stronghold. Most beautiful of the northern castle, standing high above the town and Dundrum Bay, it features a tall circular keep at its centre, an inner bailey protected by a rock-cut ditch and an outer bailey with the ruins of the 17th century Blundell house.

Greencastle

This is a royal castle, built in the mid 13th century as part of the coastal chain guaranteeing a safe passage between Dublin and the north. A small mound nearby to the west may be the remains of an earlier castle and the ruins of a medieval church also survive. The views from the massive rectangular keep to the Mournes and across Carlingford Lough to Carlingford are spectacular. 4 miles south west of Kilkeel by minor roads from the A2.

Narrow Water Castle

Picturesquely sited on a promontory in the Newry river estuary, this tower-house was built for an English garrison in the 1560s. The tower has been re-roofed, with new floors and it stands within a bawn wall, an excellent example of its type.