Court tombs, sometimes called court cairns, are a type of Neolithic megalithic monument particular to the northern half of Ireland, typically dating from around 4000 BC onwards. They are recognisable by a semicircular or oval forecourt of upright stones opening onto one or more roofed gallery chambers, the whole originally covered by a long cairn of smaller stones. The forecourt is thought to have served a ceremonial function, a space for ritual activity connected with the burial of the dead.

The principal survey record for this tomb comes from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, whose meticulous county-by-county catalogue, published in 1964, remains a foundational work for anyone studying the megalithic monuments of Ireland. Volume II of their Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland covered County Mayo, documenting the structural condition, orientation, and surviving elements of each monument recorded. Mayo contains a notable concentration of court tombs, reflecting the dense Neolithic settlement of the west of Ireland in the millennia before the Atlantic climate deteriorated and the blanket bogs began to spread across what had once been productive farmland. Many of the tombs now sit in boggy or marginal ground precisely because that process of environmental change buried and, in some cases, preserved them.