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The Crawtree Stone is a portal tomb of Neolithic date, located in the Newry and Mourne district of County Down. Portal tombs are among the earliest monumental structures in Ireland, typically consisting of two large portal stones flanking an entrance leading to a burial chamber. Built upon bedrock of the Hawick Group—a Silurian wacke formation dating to the Wenlock period—the monument stands in a landscape shaped by ancient geology and subsequent human activity.
The Crawtree Stone exemplifies the megalithic tradition of the Irish Neolithic, when communities invested considerable labour in constructing durable sepulchral monuments from locally available stone. The wacke bedrock underlying the site would have provided suitable raw material, though the principal orthostatic stones may have been selected for their size and bearing properties rather than their precise geological origin. The portal tomb form suggests ritual deposition of the dead within a defined architectural space, serving both funerary and territorial purposes for its builders.
The monument is protected under the Historic Environment Division's statutory scheduling system, assigned reference number 9107. This designation recognises its significance as a surviving example of Neolithic monumental architecture, offering evidence of burial practices, social organisation and constructive capabilities during the early prehistory of the island.
The crawtree stone. portal tomb is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 9107. View the official record →
The Crawtree Stone is a portal tomb of Neolithic date, located in the Newry and Mourne district of County Down. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 9107.
The crawtree 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.
The crawtree 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 9107.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Kilkeel, st. colman del mourne. rath, reused as medieval church & graveyard (0.3 km), Giant's grave. court tomb (2.8 km), Dunnaval. counterscarp rath (3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of The crawtree 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.
The crawtree stone. portal tomb stands on Hawick Group, bedrock that formed in the Wenlock. The rock here is wacke.