Giant's Ring

{{Infobox ancient site

| name = Giant's Ring

| image = Northern Ireland Belfast Giants Ring 001.jpg

| caption = The Megalithic tomb at the centre of the Giant's Ring

| coordinates = {{coord|54|32|25|N|5|57|0|W|display=inline,title}}

| location = Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

| type = Henge

| diameter = 180 meters

| height = 3.5 meters

| material = Dirt

| built = {{circa|2700 BC}}

}}

The Giant's Ring is a henge monument at Ballynahatty, near Shaw's Bridge, Belfast, Northern Ireland. A wall to protect the site was constructed under the supervision of local land owner Arthur Hill-Trevor in 1837. The inscribed stone tablet on the wall surrounding the site which details Viscount Dungannon's interest was carved by Belfast stonecarver Charles A Thompson about c.1919.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}}

The site is a State Care Historic Monument{{cite web| title=State Care Historic Monuments| date=31 March 2007| work=ehsni.gov.uk| publisher=Environment and Heritage Service| url=http://www.ehsni.gov.uk/state_care_monuments_2007.pdf| access-date=17 August 2012| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722033155/http://www.doeni.gov.uk/niea/state_care_monuments_2007.pdf| archive-date=22 July 2012| url-status=dead}} and also a Site of Special Scientific Interest.{{cite web| title=Part 4, District Proposals: Lisburn Countryside Urban Environment| date=November 2004| publisher=Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland) | work=Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan 2015 (draft)| url=http://www.planningni.gov.uk/index/policy/dev_plans/devplans_az/bmap_2015/bmap_district_proposals/bmap_lisburn/bmap_lisburn_countryside1/bmap_lisburn_urban.htm#ln06| access-date=17 August 2012}}

The site consists of a circular enclosure, {{convert|180|m|ft|abbr=on}} in diameter and {{convert|2.8|ha}} in area, surrounded by a circular earthwork bank {{convert|3.5|m|ft|abbr=on}} high. At least three of the five irregularly spaced gaps in the bank are intentional and possibly original. East of the centre of the enclosure is a small passage tomb with a vestigial passage facing west. There were reports of other tombs outside the enclosure, but there is no trace of these.{{cite book| last=Weir, A| year=1980 |title=Early Ireland. A Field Guide| publisher=Blackstaff Press| location=Belfast| page=133}}

History

The Giant's Ring dates from the Neolithic period and was built around 2700 BC,[http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/Giants-Ring-Belfast-P2791 Giants Ring] before the Egyptian pyramids. The site has had some sort of public use throughout its history. It is near the Shaw's Bridge crossing of the River Lagan, a point which has been used as a crossing of the river since at least the Stone Age.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/may/12/giants-ring-trail-belfast-walk|title = Giant's Ring Trail, Belfast | Great British walks| newspaper=The Guardian |date = 11 May 2012}}

It is generally assumed that the tomb structure in the centre is earlier than the ring and that the earthwork enclosure was created afterwards, perhaps as a function of activities that took place there. Substantial effort over many years would have been needed to construct this earthworks.http://www.laganvalleylearning.co.uk/archive/Giants_Ring/teachers/Giants%20Ring.pdf

The original purpose of the monument is unknown but it has often been hypothesised that it meeting place or as a memorial to the dead.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfDBEAAAQBAJ&dq=ballynahatty&pg=PR7 | isbn=978-1-78925-972-8 | title=Ballynahatty: Excavations in a Neolithic Monumental Landscape | date=15 August 2023 | publisher=Oxbow Books }} Over time the usage may well have changed so it impossible to ascribe a single defined usage to such a site.

Archaeologist Michael J. O'Kelly believed that the Giant's Ring, like hundreds of other passage tombs built in Ireland during the Neolithic period, such as Newgrange, showed evidence for a religion which venerated the dead as one of its core principles. He believed that this "cult of the dead" was just one particular form of European Neolithic religion, and that other megalithic monuments displayed evidence for different religious beliefs which were solar, rather than death-orientated.O'Kelly, Michael J. 1982. Newgrange: Archaeology, Art and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson. Page 122.

In the 18th century, the site was used for horse racing.[http://www.visitlisburn.com/heritage/giants_ring/ Giants Ring : Visit Lisburn : Lisburn Tourism Guide Lisburn City Guide Lisburn City Council Information Centre Northern Ireland] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218172903/http://www.visitlisburn.com/heritage/giants_ring/ |date=2007-02-18 }} A ritual site adjacent to the henge was excavated in the early 1990s by Barrie Hartwell of the Queen's University of Belfast who has published a comprehensive and thorough account of the site, the many excavations and possible original usages of the wider Ballynahatty townland in which the Giant's Ring is situated. {{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfDBEAAAQBAJ&dq=ballynahatty&pg=PR7 | isbn=978-1-78925-972-8 | title=Ballynahatty: Excavations in a Neolithic Monumental Landscape | date=15 August 2023 | publisher=Oxbow Books }}

{{Panorama

| image = Image:Giants Ring.jpg

| fullwidth = 9314

| fullheight = 1837

| caption = A panorama of The Giant's Ring

| height = 230

}}

References

External links

[http://www.lisburn.com/books/historical_society/volume9/voume9-images/volume9-1.jpg Aerial photograph of the Giant's Ring taken in 1984]
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertelsmore/albums/72157673358941710 Photos of the Giant's Ring with rainbow]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gMk0l9en28 Aerial Drone Footage of the Giant's Ring recorded by David Doyle, 2015]

Category:Buildings and structures completed in the 3rd millennium BC

Category:Archaeological sites in County Antrim

Category:Geography of Belfast

Category:Tourist attractions in County Antrim

Category:Dolmens in Northern Ireland

Category:Henges

Giant's Ring

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links