Ireland's Ancient Stones

Aghmakane, County Armagh

'The Long Stones' occupy an elevated site in Aghmakane townland (pronounced 'Ahmakane'), 1 1/2 miles south-west of Camlough and several hundred yards south of the road to Milltown. Access is difficult due to the heavily overgrown and at times marshy nature of the surrounding fields. The megalith, formerly known as 'The Hag's Chair', stands close to a small cashel of much later date, now almost obscured by gorse.

Despite much mutilation The Long Stones are recognisable as a remnant of a large portal tomb, though the hilltop siting is somewhat unusual. In its present state it consists of two tall pillars of granite alongside the broken stump of a third stone. The west stone of the group is 9 1/2 feet high and leans slightly: the middle one, which is aligned at right angles to its fellows, is 7 feet high. This arrangement of the stones, as shown by the plan, is in keeping with the idea of a doorstone flanked by a pair of tall portal stones, assuming that the broken east stone originally matched the height of the west one.
It is likely that the chamber and cairn served as a stone quarry for the construction of the cashel, and a massive recumbent slab inside its walls is almost certainly the missing capstone. One might speculate as to how the portal stones survived the depredations of the cashel builders; it may simply be that they were too difficult to manhandle, or just not required - or were they perhaps left untouched as a token mark of respect for an already ancient and to some extent still revered monument?

This must once have been a very impressive structure indeed, comparable in size with some of the tallest dolmens in the country. Its closed portal features are strongly reminiscent of those at Knockeen (Waterford) and Kilmogue (Kilkenny).

Click here to buy the Appletree Press book from Amazon.co.uk. For more information click on: Ireland's Ancient Stones - A Megalithic Heritage by Kenneth McNally, published by Appletree Press.