Megaliths of Northern Ireland Exhibition
Partners: Down County Museum, Young Archaeologists Club, NIEA and State
Archaeological Museum, Warsaw
Down County Museum set up the Downpatrick branch of the Young Archaeologists’ Club
(based in CBA, York) in 2002 and took advantage of a Lottery ‘Awards for All’ grant to
produce an exhibition and booklet on the ‘Archaeology of Strangford Lough’ in 2009. The
success of this venture led to a further YAC project being incorporated within the Museum’s
EU PEACE III phase 1 funding bid in 2011. This involved the cross-community group making
field trips to megalithic sites in Down, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Meath and creating an
exhibition entitled ‘Megaliths of Northern Ireland’, and a booklet (‘Mega Megaliths’) charting
visits to Neolithic passage tombs (eg Newgrange), court tombs, portal tombs and stone
circles (eg Ballynoe and Beaghmore), and participation in a dig at Tirnony portal tomb, Co
Tyrone.
Generous assistance was received from NIEA and the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork.
Part of the funding was for the translation of the exhibition and booklet into Polish, in order to
tour the display around Northern Ireland and Poland in two identical versions to promote
good relations and educational opportunities for participating venues. The exhibition has so
far toured to 4 museums in Down and Mid-Antrim, and to 5 museums in Poland, with the
assistance of the State Archaeological Museum, Warsaw, whose staff are managing the
transport of the display and distribution of Polish booklets to appropriate museums. The
project is designed to encourage both interest in archaeology and mutual understanding
between Northern Irish and Polish people.