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Druids' Altar is a wedge tomb situated near Moyle in Northern Ireland. This megalithic monument dates to the Neolithic or Bronze Age and belongs to a distinctive class of passage tombs characterised by their wedge-shaped ground plan, wider at the entrance and narrowing towards the rear. The tomb was constructed from stone suitable to its landscape, raised upon bedrock formed from mafic lava and tuff of Palaeogene age, geological foundations that have supported this structure for thousands of years.
Wedge tombs represent a significant tradition in Irish megalithic burial practice, typically oriented to face the southwest and designed to accommodate communal interments. The Moyle location places this example within the rich archaeological landscape of County Antrim, an area notable for its concentration of prehistoric monuments reflecting sustained patterns of settlement and ritual activity across multiple millennia.
The monument is protected by the Historic Environment Division under reference 620, recognising its importance as evidence of Neolithic or Bronze Age society. Druids' Altar survives as a substantial prehistoric structure, its presence in the modern landscape a tangible connection to the communities who built it and the burial practices they observed thousands of years ago.
Druids' altar. wedge tomb is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 620. View the official record →
Druids' Altar is a wedge tomb situated near Moyle in Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 620.
Druids' altar. wedge tomb dates from the neo/b.a. period, and is classified as a megalithic tomb. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Druids' altar. wedge tomb 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 620.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Kilmoyle old graveyard. church (site of) & graveyard with souterrain (1.5 km), Tober-bile. standing stone (5.2 km), Standing stone (5.4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Druids' altar. wedge tomb'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.
Druids' altar. wedge tomb stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Palaeogene, bedrock that formed in the Paleogene. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.