Loughcrew Cairns

Building the Megaliths

The Paleolithic is the early or old Stone Age which lasted thousands of years and ended about 8.000 BC. The Mesolithic or middle Stone Age was from 8.000 to 4.000 BC and it is within this period that the first settlers arrived to the north Irish coast. The Neolithic or new Stone Age was from 4.000 to 2.500 BC and these people were the builders of the first Megaliths in Ireland, including those iat Loughcrew.

The Bronze Age follows the Neolithic from 2.500 to 500 BC. [...]
The Iron Age lasted from about 500 BC to 500 AD. [...] It is alleged that the Celts came to Ireland during the Iron Age bringing with them iron tools and the knowledge to manufacture them.

Neolithic people first arrived in Ireland about 6.000 years ago settling first in the west. [...] They were a farming community and they brought their cattle and sheep with them.