Ballykeel dolmen dates back around 5,500 years to 3,500 BC! It’s a great example of a tripod dolmen (or portal tomb) and is of the same type as the Legananny Dolmen (that can be seen on our Slieve Croob Whodunit Hunt in County Down) which is only a mile or two from Slieve Croob mountain.
Ballykeel Dolmen was only excavated in 1965 and had to be partially re-erected during excavations in 1965 that had begun two years earlier because the large capstone on top had fallen. Those investigations indicated that the tomb had been previously disturbed and, likely, some items taken – however, it still unearthed three highly decorated ‘Ballyalton’ bowls, hundreds of shards of pottery and some flint tools including a javelin head. High levels of phosphates found on the chamber floor confirm it was used for ancient burials.
This dolmen was at the southern end of a large cairn that measured approximately 10 * 30 metres. Most of this cairn has, with age, unsurprisingly disappeared but two parallel lines of stones can still clearly be seen. When it was originally built it would have had the appearance of that shown in the reconstruction photo below:
Known locally as ‘The Hag’s Chair’, the cairn is associated with the Cailleach, the mythical goddess of Winter. Legend has it that she would fly down from her home on Slieve Gullion to sit on the dolmen at Ballykeel, which served as her throne. Sacred rituals and ceremonies were likely performed here in ancient times.
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