One of the North’s finest ancient burial chambers

The Clontygora tomb is located on a prominent hillside in South Armagh and is locally known as ‘The King’s Ring’. The tomb has an odd Y shape and has a large burial gallery at its center. The roof slabs and the large capstone that covers its first 3 chambers are supported by enormous split granite boulders. These unusually face north (instead of east-west) probably towards the nearby stream. This area is known as The Ring of Gullion has been farmed for at least 6000 years and has 20 impressive megalithic tombs, burial chambers, and cairns. It is amazing that this tomb survives as it was reported that some of the stones were removed to build the first lock on the Newry Canal, the quay at Narrow Water in Warrenpoint, and more recently to build field boundary walls. During an excavation in 1937 small fragments of human bone, Neolithic pottery, flint, and arrowheads were recovered.