The story of Dooey's Cairn
Dooey's Cairn, properly the Ballymacaldrack court tomb, was built by Neolithic farming communities around 3000 BC, during the era when the first agriculture reached this part of Ireland. Court tombs were communal burial places: an open court, bounded by upright slabs, stood in front of a chamber where rituals took place. This example is unusual because most court tombs run north to south, while here the U-shaped court, marked by eleven upright slabs, faces south-west.
What sets the site apart is its cremation passage. Running behind the chamber for roughly 20 feet, with a cobbled floor and an original timber roof, it is the only structure of its kind in any Irish court cairn. Within it, three pits held the cremated bones of five or six adults, evidence of how these early communities treated their dead.
The monument was excavated twice. In 1935, archaeologists found polished stone axes beneath the portal stones at the chamber entrance. The 1975 dig investigated the cremation passage and recovered the human remains, alongside flint arrowheads, decorated pottery and even cereal seeds that point to early farming. Four pottery vessels from the site are now held at the Ulster Museum.
The cairn takes its name from Andrew Dooey, who owned the land, and it was his family who granted the monument to the state in 1975. Today it is a state-care site looked after by the Department for Communities Historic Environment Division, kept open and free for anyone who wants to stand among 5,000-year-old stones.