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Wedge tomb at Limavady is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument comprising a stone burial chamber constructed beneath an earthen or stone mound. The tomb sits on bedrock of the Hibernian Greensands Formation and Ulster White Limestone Formation, Late Cretaceous chalk and sandstone deposits that would have provided workable stone for the monument's construction. Wedge tombs represent a distinct category of megalithic burial structure, characterised by their distinctive wedge-shaped ground plan, and are particularly concentrated in the south and west of Ireland, with examples scattered more sparsely across the north.
The Limavady site lies within a landscape shaped by glacial and post-glacial processes that exposed these Cretaceous bedrock formations across County Londonderry. The monument dates from the period between the fourth and second millennia before the present, when megalithic burial practices formed a central aspect of community ritual and identity throughout the Irish island. Such monuments served both as tombs for the dead and as territorial markers within the contemporary landscape.
The monument is protected as a scheduled historic monument under the Historic Environment Division reference 12012. Wedge tombs of this type have proven archaeologically significant for understanding Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement patterns, social organisation and burial customs across the island of Ireland.
Wedge tomb is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 12012. View the official record →
Wedge tomb at Limavady is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument comprising a stone burial chamber constructed beneath an earthen or stone mound. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 12012.
Wedge tomb dates from the neo/b.a. period, and is classified as a megalithic tomb. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Wedge 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 12012.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including The rhellick. killeen, possibly cashel & souterrain (1.5 km), Bivallate rath (3.7 km), St. adamnan's footprints, giant's track, shane's leap. inauguration stone (5.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Wedge 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.
Wedge tomb stands on Hibernian Greensands Formation And Ulster White Limestone Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Late Cretaceous. The rock here is chalk and sandstone.