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Rocking Stone is a portal tomb situated near Strabane in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. This Neolithic megalithic monument belongs to a distinctive class of passage tombs that flourished in the Irish and British Isles during the fourth millennium BC. The tomb's name derives from the characteristic way in which its capstone can move slightly upon its supporting uprights, a feature that has fascinated visitors for centuries and that testifies to the precise stone-working knowledge of its Neolithic builders.
The monument rests upon bedrock of the Argyll Group, metamorphic rocks formed during the Neoproterozoic era, comprising psammite, semipelite and pelite. This ancient geological foundation has provided a stable base for the megalithic structure across more than five thousand years. The local stone resources available in this landscape would have been essential to the communities who constructed the tomb, shaping both the feasibility and the form of their monumental architecture.
The Rocking Stone is recorded in the Historic Environment Division's protected monuments register under reference 14011. It survives as an important testament to Neolithic burial practices and megalithic construction techniques in the north of Ireland, representing the ceremonial and spiritual concerns of prehistoric communities in this region.
Rocking stone. portal tomb is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 14011. View the official record →
Rocking Stone is a portal tomb situated near Strabane in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 14011.
Rocking stone. portal 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.
Rocking stone. portal 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 14011.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Giant's grave. wedge tomb (1.6 km), Stone circle (3 km), Strabane canal, ballydonaghy lock, greenlaw lock. canal (4.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Rocking stone. portal 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.
Rocking stone. portal tomb stands on Argyll Group, bedrock that formed in the Neoproterozoic. The rock here is psammite, semipelite and pelite.