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The Moate is a Bronze Age cairn and cist burial monument located in Newry and Mourne, Northern Ireland. It comprises multiple stone cists—stone-lined burial chambers—constructed within a cairn of stones raised over bedrock of Gala Group wacke, a coarse sedimentary rock of Silurian age. Such monuments are characteristic of Bronze Age funerary practice across the Irish landscape, typically constructed between 2300 and 800 BC to contain the cremated or inhumed remains of the deceased alongside grave goods.
The multiple cists suggest this was a communal or family burial site, perhaps used across generations. The wacke bedrock beneath would have provided accessible building material, though the bulk of the cairn's stones would have been gathered from the local landscape. Such deposits commonly yielded pottery, metalwork and tools reflecting the status and beliefs of Bronze Age communities.
The Moate is protected as a scheduled monument by the Historic Environment Division under reference 6016, reflecting its archaeological significance as evidence of Bronze Age mortuary practice and settlement patterns in this region of County Down. Its survival and recorded location contribute to understanding pre-historic land use and social organisation in the wider Newry and Mourne area.
The moate. multiple cist cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 6016. View the official record →
The Moate is a Bronze Age cairn and cist burial monument located in Newry and Mourne, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 6016.
The moate. multiple cist cairn dates from the bronze age period, and is classified as a cairn. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
The moate. multiple cist 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 6016.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including The dorsy entrenchment, the dorsey entrenchment. large earthwork enclosure (2.6 km), The relig. graveyard enclosure (2.9 km), The cloghfin, the white stone of watching, calliagh birras stone, cloghfin, calliagh berras stone. standing stone (3.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of The moate. multiple cist 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.
The moate. multiple cist cairn stands on Gala Group, bedrock that formed in the Telychian. The rock here is wacke.