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The Giant’s Ring

September 25th, 2007 by John

The Giant's Ring was really the first true tourist thing we did as a family in Belfast. It's probably less that three miles from our house, and one of these days we're going to try to walk it from the Minnowburn Beeches near Shaw's Bridge.

The ring itself is about 220 yards in diameter, and the walls are about 14 feet high (they seem higher). There's a Neolithic passage tomb near the center of the ring; it apparently used to be covered in a mound itself. The tomb dates from about 3000 BC, and the ring is somewhat newer. The best resource I've found so far has been this one; it has a lot of detail, diagrams, and pictures that discuss the various excavations over the years and conjectures as to the site's use and importance. Use it in conjunction with this Google Maps view, and let me know if you can find the three Bronze Age barrows (I can't).

As you can see, the boys had a great time playing around the dolmen. We went for a short stroll out the southwest entrance of the Ring - this is apparently the trail that we'd follow from Minnowburn Beeches. Chance, Ginger, and I all had our first experiences with stinging nettle - now, at last, we know what all those English stories are talking about! If you've had a fire ant bite, that's a pretty good description of how it feels.

We've been back since, and both times have been great fun. It's a wonderful, peaceful place.

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  • 1 Josh Oct 6, 2007 at 10:21 pm

    Now that you've been stung by a nettle, you have to eat one! Seriously, I hear nettle soup is pretty popular over there (at least in England, not sure about the rest of UK), and it sounds like it would be pretty good - no stinging.

    Don't forget to post about your trip to Dunfanaghy.