Welcome to megalithomania.com. This is a site originally dedicated to Irish megaliths, but now expanded to include all sorts of antiquities that are of importance/interest.

I try and visit sites as often as I can, but over winter I'll be taking it quite easy. You can easily check what I've been up to by using the Site Visit Diary on the right hand side. For quick access to the latest trips use the link on the menu bar.

The descriptions that you will find here are my own, they are not always as objective as they probably should be, but that is because visiting stones, for me, is a very subjective experience. My interest goes well beyond the physical site itself, or what others consider as being 'the site'. I believe that a site extends beyond the local limits and into the landscape that surrounds it. I am constantly marvelling at locations and often comment more on the landscape than I do on the monument itself. You will find some archaeological information here, but I try to offer more than facts and figures: I offer perspective in time and place.

Reports of my earlier visits differ greatly from later ones. This happens as you travel around. Each new site adds to your knowledge and feelings about the next. A new site may make you realise that something you saw at another location is important after all. With many of the early sites I do need to go back and use the things I've learned from later visits to assess them. Time. It's all about time and finding enough of it.

Lately, I've found myself changing too. I am more open minded right now than I've ever been - not so quick to dismiss ideas that I either don't agree with immediately or don't understand. I will not alter the ethos behind megalithomania to reflect this, but more of me can now be found at http://www.tomfourwinds.com.

I hope you get as much pleasure from these pages as I have had visiting the sites herein and, furthermore, I hope that it encourages you to go out and visit some of them too.

Until we meet in the stones ... Ride On!!

Tom

My latest blog entry will now appear here. You can see all my blogs here.

Going Up Down - Sunday, 12 February, 2006 CE

I managed to plan a nice route that took in a good proportion of new sites and a few sites I've already visited that took me on a full circle of Strangford Lough. I crossed from Strangford to Portaferry on the surprisingly expensive (but undeniably useful) ferry and drove in an anticlockwise direction up the east coast of the Ard Peninsular. There is some beautiful, unspoilt scenery at the southern tip of this spit of land.

The weather did not turn out to be as good as predicted, so instead of broken clous with bits of sunshine all I encountered all day was dullness and rain. Then, just as the daylight was ending a lovely red glow lit the western skies and I realised I was very close to Ballynoe stone circle. So, naturally I headed that way to see if I could get some nice sunset photos. Typically, just as I arrived at the end of the lane that leads to the circle the red glow disappeared and the sky returned to dullness. Nevermind ... next time.

Megalithomania is now available on your mobile phone!!!!

If you have a WAP 2 capable browser on your phone (if it's colour then it's a safe bet) you can now browse the site on the move. Yes, you can now look up sites while you are out and about visiting the stones.

You can browse the sites, search by name or look up the nearest 25 sites within 10km of a grid reference.

So, when you are out and want somewhere to visit just take a look and see what's near you. More features and more information will be made available in the near future - but it's all about time and the lack thereof.

BUT PLEASE! Do not use this wap facility whilst driving! There are enough pointless deaths on Ireland's roads without adding more.

The WAP site can be accessed at http://wap.megalithomania.com - note if you are not using a WAP device to access this you will be redirected back to the main site.

Anyway ... Happy WAPping!

To save space on the home page I have moved information on all the site's features to a separate page. Thease features includes RSS feeds, GPS readings, longitudes & latitudes of sites, GEO URLS, help finding sites near to you , OS map information and recommending pages to others.