Behy court tomb
The chamber of the court tomb in 2011 | |
| Location | County Mayo, Ireland |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 54°18′15.48″N 9°27′45.49″W / 54.3043000°N 9.4626361°W |
| History | |
| Material | Stone |
| Founded | c. 3500 BC |
The court tomb of Behy is a megalithic monument in the townland of the same name (Irish: An Bheithigh, meaning 'birch land'), near Belderrig in the north of County Mayo, Ireland. The monument is located within the Céide Fields complex, 150 meters above sea level on the slope of Maumakeogh hill, and is the most westerly of the thirty or so tombs in the Killala group. The site commands wide views across the sea to the north and to the Stags of Broadhaven. The monument is located 500 meters west of the Céide Fields Visitor Centre and is on private property.
The chamber of the monument, which is buried beneath an envelope of peat, was long known to local turf cutters, and the site was named in folk tradition as the "Roomeens". The sunken chamber had been used as a still house for the manufacture of poteen. The monument first came to the attention of archaeologists when it was surveyed by Rúaidhrí de Valéra and Sean Ó Nualláin of the Archaeological Section of the Ordnance Survey in 1952. The monument was initially classed as a passage grave because of the cruciform chamber; this assessment was revised after a second survey in 1959.