The story of Legananny Dolmen
Legananny Dolmen was built around 3000 BC, in the Neolithic period, making it roughly 5,000 years old. It is a portal tomb, one of the earliest types of megalithic monument in Ireland, raised by the first farming communities to settle this part of County Down. Three tall upright stones support a long capstone, forming a chamber that was used for the burial of the dead.
The tomb takes its name from the Irish Liagán Áine, meaning Áine's standing stone, a reference to Áine, a figure in Irish tradition. When the site was examined, urns were found beneath the supporting stones, and slight traces of a cairn survive that must once have covered or surrounded the chamber far more extensively than the bare stones suggest today.
Its unusually tall, slender supports give the monument the elegant, balanced look that made it the most photographed dolmen in Northern Ireland. Generations of antiquarians and photographers have framed it against the Mountains of Mourne, and the image has become one of the best-known views of the Irish prehistoric past.
Today Legananny Dolmen is a State Care Historic Monument, protected and maintained by the state while remaining freely open to the public on its hillside above Castlewellan.