Beaghmore is a Bronze Age site with large stone structures, stone circles, and cairns located 8.5 miles northwest of Cookstown, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. It is found on the southeast edge of the Sperrin Mountains.

According to Mackay's Dictionary of Ulster Place-names, the name "Beaghmore" comes from the Irish phrase "an Bheitheach Mhór," which means "big place of birch trees." This name shows that the area was once covered in trees before Neolithic farmers cleared the land.

Beaghmore's stone circles, alignments, and cairns are protected historic sites in the townland of Beaghmore, within the Cookstown District Council area. Specific locations include a cairn (grid reference: H6872 8470), another cairn (grid reference: H6856 8472), stone circles, alignments, and cairns (grid reference area: H684 842), a round cairn with standing stones called Bradley's Cairn (grid reference: H6830 8401), and a cairn and alignment (grid reference: H6863 8431). All these sites are listed as Scheduled Historic Monuments.

Excavation

The site was found by George Barnett in the late 1930s while he was cutting peat, and 1,269 stones were uncovered. It was partially excavated between 1945 and 1949 when the government took care of it. It was also excavated again in 1965. Hearths and flint tools were found and tested to determine their age, which is between 2900 and 2600 BC. Some of the stone rows cross over fallen walls from field structures that are also from the Neolithic period. When one of the cairns was excavated, a polished porcellanite axe was found. This axe may have come from the Tievebulliagh axe factory, which is about 70 miles away in County Antrim. The largest cairn had a central pit that contained an oak branch.

Features

There are seven stone circles of different sizes, with six of them forming matched pairs. There are also twelve cairns, which are piles of stones, and ten rows of stones. The circles range in size from 10 to 20 meters in diameter and are connected to earlier burial cairns. Stone rows are arranged in lines that lead toward the circles. The stones in the circles are small, with most less than 0.5 meters tall, and the circles are shaped unevenly, which suggests they may be linked to edges surrounding large stone tombs. A common feature of the stone rows is a pattern where short rows of tall stones are placed next to much longer rows of small stones. These rows extend outward from the circles in a general north-east direction.

Function

Excavation has shown that the site covers an ancient farming area from the Neolithic period. Some believe the stones were built because the soil became less healthy and peat started to spread. Another idea is that Beaghmore was a big place used for important rituals and was built between 1500 and 800 BC.