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Giant's Grave is a court tomb situated in the Newry and Mourne district of Northern Ireland. This Neolithic megalithic monument, protected as a scheduled monument (reference 9036), represents one of the distinctive communal burial structures built during the early farming period in Ireland, roughly five thousand years ago. Court tombs characteristically feature a rectangular or trapezoidal forecourt leading to burial chambers, and functioned as repositories for the cremated remains of multiple individuals.
The monument stands on bedrock formed from the Hawick Group, a Wenlock-age wacke formation that underlies this upland region of County Down. This geology would have influenced both the construction methods employed and the types of stone available to the builders, who selected suitable blocks from the local landscape to construct the megalithic structure.
The site remains an important record of early Neolithic ritual practice and funerary behaviour in this part of Ulster. The location within the Newry and Mourne area places it within a notable concentration of prehistoric monuments characteristic of the drumlin landscape and coastal zones of northern Ireland. The tomb's survival to the present day contributes significantly to understanding the material culture and social organisation of Ireland's earliest farming communities.
Giant's grave. court tomb is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 9036. View the official record →
Giant's Grave is a court tomb situated in the Newry and Mourne district of Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 9036.
Giant's grave. court tomb dates from the neolithic period, and is classified as a megalithic tomb. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Giant's grave. court 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 9036.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including The crawtree stone. portal tomb (2.8 km), Kilkeel, st. colman del mourne. rath, reused as medieval church & graveyard (2.9 km), Dunnaval. counterscarp rath (3.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Giant's grave. court 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.
Giant's grave. court tomb stands on Hawick Group, bedrock that formed in the Wenlock. The rock here is wacke.