Europe’s oldest Neolithic cemetery

This site is one of the most significant ancient cemeteries in all of Europe. There may have been over 100 monuments on this site but only 30 have survived as the area was extensively damaged in the early 19th century by land clearance and quarrying. There are remains of nearly every type of tomb from different eras dating over thousands of years. You can see remains of chamber tombs, portal tombs, dolmens, ring forts, cairns, and passage graves and each one is known by numbers assigned to them in 1837 by George Petrie, the famous Irish antiquarian and archaeologist. Excavations by Swedish archaeologists in 1977 produced radiocarbon dates that have placed some of the tombs as early as 4600 BC! New types of tombs have also been recently uncovered that are totally unique to the area. A large area of the cemetery is now under state protection and a restored cottage on-site houses an exhibition.