Creevykeel Court Tomb – a place of the ancestors in County Sligo
By Anthony Murphy – Mythical Ireland
There are ancient places that invite us to slow down and look a little more closely. Creevykeel in County Sligo is one of them. Its great stones frame a question that archaeology can help us explore, but cannot entirely answer: what did this place mean to the people who built it?
During my recent visit, I photographed and filmed the monument, sharing a short reel with the Mythical Ireland community. The response has been wonderful. Here, I want to spend a little longer with Creevykeel – to look beyond the brief introduction a reel allows, and consider the people and stories behind the stones.
Map showing the location of Creevykeel Court Tomb in County Sligo.
An extraordinary monument from the Stone Age
Creevykeel lies near Cliffoney in north County Sligo. It is a Neolithic monument, belonging to the period when farming communities were establishing their lives and building great stone tombs in Ireland. Heritage Ireland places it within the broad date range of 4000–2500 BC; that is a period attribution, rather than a precise construction date. Heritage Ireland
The cairn – the body of piled stones – is long and roughly trapezoidal. Within it is an oval court, approximately 15 metres long and nine metres wide. Beyond the court, a monumental entrance leads into a main burial gallery divided into two compartments. Heritage Ireland
An aerial perspective helps reveal the relationship between the court, the burial gallery and the surrounding cairn. Photograph © Anthony Murphy / Mythical Ireland.
A space for the living and the dead
The court gives this type of monument its name. What catches my imagination is the relationship between that open space and the chambers beyond it.
It is tempting to picture a gathering here: people approaching the stones, standing together, and taking part in acts of remembrance. Ceremonies connected with burial and the ancestors are a plausible interpretation of such a setting. But the words spoken, the beliefs expressed and the precise sequence of events are beyond our knowledge.
That uncertainty is part of the fascination. We can examine the architecture, but we cannot recover a complete account of the lives once lived around it. The stones give us something tangible through which to consider people whose names and language have been lost.
Excavation and the monument we see today
Creevykeel was excavated in 1935 under Hugh O’Neill Hencken. The cairn was dismantled and rebuilt during the work, an important detail when looking at its present appearance. Finds included pottery, a polished stone axe, quartz crystals and worked flint.
The excavation also recovered small deposits of burnt bone. These require care in the telling: Hencken reported that the fragments were too small and thoroughly burnt to identify confidently as human. The monument’s interpretation as a tomb should not lead us to turn that particular evidence into something more definite than the excavator described. Excavation summary and references
A view across Creevykeel’s court, with the entrance to the burial gallery on the left. Photograph © Anthony Murphy / Mythical Ireland.
A place with more than one history
Creevykeel’s story continued long after its Neolithic use. Evidence of early medieval metalworking shows that later people found new purposes for the old monument. Folklore also gathered around it, including accounts of mysterious lights and a white hare associated with local poitín-makers. These are later traditions, rather than evidence of the builders’ beliefs. Voices from the Dawn
For me, this is one of the enduring pleasures of exploring Ireland’s ancient places. A monument can hold several histories: its construction, its changing uses, the stories told about it and our own encounters with it today.
Watch my short film of Creevykeel
Join me for a closer look at Creevykeel in the short video below, with views from the ground and from the air.
Creevykeel as a limited edition photographic print
If Creevykeel has caught your imagination, I have also made a photograph of this remarkable monument available as a limited edition print through Mythical Ireland.
It is a way to bring a connection with Ireland’s ancient landscape into your home, or to share that connection as a gift.
Creevykeel Court Tomb photographed by Anthony Murphy for Mythical Ireland.
View the Creevykeel limited edition print
