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The Cairn at Cookstown is a prehistoric mound monument sited on bedrock of Silurian mafic igneous rock in the townland of Cookstown in County Tyrone. The cairn lies on an unnamed igneous intrusion that forms part of the complex igneous geology of the region, typical of the local landscape. Built from stone gathered or quarried from this resistant igneous bedrock, the monument represents Bronze Age or Neolithic funerary or ceremonial practice. The solid foundation provided by the underlying igneous rock would have ensured the stability of the stone mound over millennia.
Cairns of this type served as burial monuments or territorial markers across prehistoric Ulster, constructed with labour-intensive stone gathering from the local geology. This example preserves evidence of how prehistoric communities organised resources and responded to their local landscape. The monument's survival on this geologically distinctive site reflects the durability of stone construction on firm bedrock.
The Cairn at Cookstown is protected by the Historic Environment Division as a scheduled ancient monument under reference 14432, ensuring its conservation as a key archaeological and landscape heritage asset.
Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 14432. View the official record →
The Cairn at Cookstown is a prehistoric mound monument sited on bedrock of Silurian mafic igneous rock in the townland of Cookstown in County Tyrone. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 14432.
Cairn dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a cairn. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Cairn is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 14432.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Cairn & alignment (0.4 km), Bradley's cairn. round cairn with standing stones (0.8 km), Stone circle (1.8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Cairn's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Cairn stands on Unnamed Igneous Intrusion, Ordovician To Silurian, bedrock that formed in the Silurian. The rock here is mafic igneous-rock.