Brehon's Chair

Brehon's Chair

Brehon's Chair (also known as Taylors Grange) is a sacred megalithic site in Rathfarnham, County Dublin, Ireland in the grounds of a private gated condominium. It is a national heritage site. The Grange Road is named after it.

The Brehon Laws were statutes that governed everyday life and politics in Ireland until the Norman invasion of 1171 (the word "Brehon" is an Anglicisation of breitheamh (earlier brithem), the Irish word for a judge). The laws were written in the Old Irish period (ca. 600 - 900 AD) and probably reflect the traditional laws of pre-Christian Ireland. These secular laws existed in parallel with, and sometimes in conflict with, Canon law throughout the early Christian period.

The monument comprises three 8.5 metre granite stones in the shape of a chair. The Brehon's Chair is believed to have been the seat of Judgement of the Archdruid. When the settlement around the chair was excavated, flint tools were among the artefacts found there.

This stone passage tomb is often misunderstood to have been a chair, as is often told in local history. However, excavations have found it to have been a passage tomb similar to that of Newgrange found in Boyne Valley. The two side stones were a basic door frame with the rear stone being the door or portal stone. These remaining features of the tomb entrance now give the impression of a large seat.

Similar to the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Newgrange, the Brehon's Chair passage tomb was once a place of astrological, spiritual, religious and ceremonial importance.

Following a controversial planning decision by An Bord Pleanála in 2018, the monument will be encircled by housing for the first time in its 5000 year history. As one of the largest passage tombs in Ireland, the Brehon's Chair remained a landmark for the inhabitants of the area throughout the prehistoric and early historic period.