5 Monuments to Explore in County Down
Checkout places to visit in County Down
County Down is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. It covers an area of 961 sq mi and has a population of 531,665. Stretching from the shores of Belfast Lough, out around Strangford Lough, and down into the magnificent Mourne Mountains. You’ll find yourself at home beside castles, beaches, forest parks, stately homes, a Royal Palace and the world's top links golf course.
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Monuments to Explore in County Down
The Annadorn Dolmen is an imposing dolmen from Down County, more precisely located near Loughinisland. Built on a mound overlooking the Loughinisland Churches, this dolmen is said to date from the Neolithic period, and is today classified as a Historic Monument . To see: it is really worth the detour.
Drumena Cashel is a small stone built farmstead enclosure or cashel of the early Christian period. Measuring approximately 130 feet by 108 feet, this oval cashel has 10 foot thick walls that have been partially rebuilt. In the center if the cashel are the foundation remains of a dwelling. The most notable feature of the site, however, is the T-shaped souterrain that has two separate entrances.
The dolmen at Legananny is probably the most famous and certainly the most photographed megalithic monument in Northern Ireland. This tripod dolmen has a capstone over 3m long and 1.8m from the ground. It dates to the Neolithic period, making the monument approximately 5,000 years old. Such portal tombs were funerary sites for the disposal of the dead in Neolithic society. It is a State Care Historic Monument sited in the townland of Legananny, in Banbridge District.
This cairn is next to an abandoned house. The excavations of this tomb occured in 1953, and the bones of at least 15 persons were found, all sorted by bones type, all the skulls together in a stack, all the long bones in another stack and so on. But since then things have changed a lot here, and most of the tomb revealed after the excavations is now lost again under the mound. Only a dozen stones are visible, with heights around 50-60 centimetres.
Nendrum Monastery was a Christian monastery on Mahee Island in Strangford Lough, County Down, Northern Ireland. Medieval records say it was founded in the 5th century, but this is uncertain. The monastery came to an end at some time between 974 and 1178, but its church served a parish until the site was abandoned in the 15th century. Some remains of the monastery can still be seen.