Mount Druid
Mount Druid or the Druid's Stone is a Stone Age cromlech standing in the townland of Ballintoy on the north coast of County Antrim.
A cromlech (or 'dolmen' in archaeological terminology) is a stone-built passage tomb or burial chamber, typically of huge upright stones and a table-top above. That at Ballintoy is a stout construction. Its name is an eighteenth century fancy though the place has nothing to do with the druids of Iron Age Britain, and archaeologists also know it as the Ballintoy Demesne Passage Tomb.[1]
When the rectory of Ballintoy was built in the late eighteenth century it was named "Mount Druid House". The Minutes of Ballintoy Church record that:
'In May 1789 Mr. Trail began to build a Glebe House…changing the name of the place from Magherabuy to Mount Druid, on account of a Druid's temple now standing on the glebe'.[2]
It is reckoned that the dolmen is Neolithic, of approximately 5,000 BC to 2,500 BC.
Maps
- Streetmap: D03714377
- Wikishire map: 55°13’49"N, 6°22’14"W
Refernces
- ↑ Survey Report: No. 43; Survey of Prehistoric Burial Site, White Park Bay, County Antrim - Ulster Archaeological Society
- ↑ Mount Druid House (Diocese of Down and Dromore)
