Overview
The Giant’s Ring sits in the townland of Ballynahatty, about four miles south of Belfast city centre near Shaw’s Bridge. It is one of Ireland’s largest henge monuments: a circular earthwork bank 180 m (590 ft) across and 3.5 m (11 ft) high, enclosing 2.8 hectares of open grass. Five gaps break the bank, and at the centre stands a small dolmen – five upright stones under a heavy capstone, the stripped-down frame of a Neolithic passage tomb whose covering cairn is long gone. Entry is free, the site is a State Care Historic Monument, and it lies within public parkland that walkers, families and dog owners all use.
History and legend
Built around 2700 BC in the Late Neolithic, the Giant’s Ring is older than the Great Pyramids of Giza. Its scale and the central tomb point to a ceremonial rather than defensive purpose – a gathering place near an ancient fording point of the River Lagan, and a burial enclosure for someone of standing. Nineteenth-century accounts cast it as a pagan altar, and folklore hands its making to the giant Fionn mac Cumhaill, said to have flung the stone that became the central dolmen.
In the 18th century the enclosure was pressed into use as a racecourse, the flat interior and high bank making a natural grandstand. Through the 1700s and 1800s, farmers turned up human remains and pottery while ploughing the surrounding fields, much of it passed to the Royal Irish Academy. The stone perimeter wall that still frames the monument was built in 1837 by Arthur Hill-Trevor, 3rd Viscount Dungannon.
Archaeology and research
The ring turns out to be the centrepiece of a much larger prehistoric landscape. Aerial photography in the 1990s picked out a cluster of crop-mark monuments in the surrounding fields, and archaeologist Barrie Hartwell’s surveys mapped further features within a kilometre – possible pit circles and cist burials.
The crop-marks also revealed the Ballynahatty timber complex. Excavations in the 1990s exposed more than 470 deep postholes from two timber enclosures covering roughly 100 by 70 metres; the inner ring surrounded a central platform, the outer had an elaborate entrance façade. Building it took an estimated 550 tonnes of oak, birch and hazel. Around 2500 BC the whole thing was deliberately burned, the charred stumps pulled out and the holes backfilled – a ritual closing of the site, probably clearing the way for the stone henge that stands today.
Earlier digs told their own story. An 1855 record by Robert MacAdam describes a stone chamber on the north side of the ring, roughly seven feet across, with a flagged floor and six compartments. Among the cremated and unburnt remains was the skeleton of a woman; a 2015 genome study found she had Near Eastern farmer ancestry, black hair and brown eyes – one of the wave of early farmers who carried agriculture and new burial customs across Europe and into Ireland. Pottery and burnt bone from the chamber date activity here to between roughly 3000 and 2500 BC.
What to see and do
- Walk the bank – follow the earthwork round. The height of it screens out the modern landscape, so inside the ring the sky does most of the work.
- The central dolmen – five uprights and a capstone make a strong silhouette, with a vestigial passage facing west. Interpretive panels at the entrance explain the tomb and Neolithic burial.
- The gaps – five breaks in the bank, three thought to be original, probably for processional movement.
- The meadow – the enclosed grass is a popular spot for a picnic or a dog walk, and quiet compared with the city a few miles north.
Walking the Giant’s Ring trail
The monument is a highlight of the National Trust’s Minnowburn Giant’s Ring circular walk, a 2.2-mile (3.52 km) loop that starts from the Minnowburn car park rather than the one beside the ring. It follows the Lagan upstream and climbs gently through young woodland to the earthwork, then carries on to the Sandpit Field – a natural amphitheatre carved by a glacier, which hosted a free concert back in 1969 – before rising to Terrace Hill garden, laid out in the mid-1930s by Edward Robinson, with views across the Lagan valley to the Belfast Hills.
The route suits most fitness levels but takes in uneven ground, short climbs and a few stiles. Dogs are welcome on leads; close any farm gates behind you. It is marked on local maps and listed on the WalkNI website.
Practical information and accessibility
- Opening – the site itself is open at all hours. The car park closes overnight, though: 9pm–10am from April to September, and 4pm–10am from October to March.
- Admission – free.
- Parking – a small free car park is on-site. Spaces fill quickly on sunny weekends, so arrive early.
- Getting there – drive via Ballynahatty Road off the A55. By public transport, take a Translink bus to the Shaw’s Bridge stop and walk about 15 minutes to the car park.
- Facilities – none on site. The nearest toilets and café are a short walk away at Barnett’s Demesne.
- Accessibility – the entrance is level, but inside it is natural grass and earth with no paved paths, and it turns soft and muddy after rain. Wheelchair users may find it heavy going, though the central area is open and flat.
Nearby attractions
- Belfast Castle – over on the Cave Hill on the north side of the city, with gardens and wide views across Belfast Lough.
- Belfast Hills – the upland ridge above the city, with a network of walking routes and viewpoints.
- Barnett’s Demesne – a few minutes away on foot, a riverside park with gardens, easy Lagan-side paths and, crucially, the toilets and coffee the Ring itself does not have.
Bring waterproof footwear after wet weather, and time an evening visit around the car-park closure so you are not left locked in.