Creggandevesky Court Tomb

This very impressive court tomb was a peat-covered, largely featureless mound and was threatened with removal in an agricultural reclamation scheme. When excavated between 1979 and 1982, it proved to be in an almost perfect state of preservation, and the owner agreed to its conservation and public access. A semi-circular forecourt at the south-east end leads to three burial chambers in a short trapezoidal cairn of granite boulders. The largest stone is a massive lintel over the entrance between the forecourt and the chambers. The cairn’s drystone side revetment walls still stand to some height and some of the corbel stones of the roof are still in place. Thin sandstone slabs found inside the chambers suggest that the roof was completed with these finer stones. Cremated bone representing the remains of at least 21 people, flint implements and Neolithic pottery were found during the excavation, some of the material in the court area. Radiocarbon determinations suggest a date of about 3500 BC, but there were also signs of later, Bronze Age, activity in the court and at the back of the cairn.

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