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The Oul Grave is a portal tomb of Neolithic date, standing in Newry and Mourne in County Down. Portal tombs represent one of the earliest monumental forms in Ireland and Britain, typically comprising two upright portal stones flanking an entrance, with a capstone carried over the threshold into a burial chamber beyond. These monuments date to the fourth millennium before the present and served as communal burial places for agricultural communities establishing themselves in the landscape.
The monument is built upon bedrock formed from an unnamed igneous intrusion of felsic composition, created during the Early Devonian period some 400 million years ago. This hard igneous geology would have presented substantial challenges to its Neolithic builders, who quarried and transported stone across difficult terrain to construct the tomb. The choice of location, despite the resistant bedrock, suggests the site held particular significance for the community that built it.
The Oul Grave is protected as a scheduled monument by the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities, recorded under reference number 6017. This designation recognises its importance as evidence of Neolithic settlement and burial practices in the northeast of Ireland, preserving a structure that has endured for over five and a half millennia across the landscape of Newry and Mourne.
The oul grave. portal tomb is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 6017. View the official record →
The Oul Grave is a portal tomb of Neolithic date, standing in Newry and Mourne in County Down. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 6017.
The oul grave. 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 oul grave. 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 6017.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Carrickinaffrin. hilltop enclosure (5.4 km), Forkill mountain. large enclosure & cairn on forkill mountain (5.8 km), Counterscarp rath (6.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of The oul grave. 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 oul grave. portal tomb stands on Unnamed Igneous Intrusion, Late Silurian To Early Devonian, bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is felsic-rock.