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Nuadú, the God of War

 

 

 

 

 

 


GAZETTEER of

IRISH PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS

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SELECTED SITES IN
COUNTY CLARE

Place-names in italics refer to listed entries.



Convert Irish Grid references to Latitude/Longitude

Interactive Map of county Clare megaliths


The Burren karst plateau.


Ballaghaglash: Burren wedge-tomb
R 373 995
Sheet 52

The chief interest of this ruined tomb is that the surviving side-stone of the chamber is perforated with a hole 60 cms in diameter, beside which is a matching round stone which would have plugged it. Perforations in transverse stones occur in Irish tombs, but rarely (if ever) in side-stones. And while a few bung-stones survive in the Paris-basin tombs of France, this - if it is genuine - is the only Irish example.

photo by Ian Thompson

It is also easy to see, at this tomb, how the builders wedged the side-slabs into the cracks in the limestone during construction.

~8.5 km NE is the fine portal-tomb at Crannagh in county Galway.


Ballycroum: Wedge-tomb
R 544 885
Sheet 58

This well-preserved wedge-tomb is also a holy well (tober) dedicated to the sun (grían:gráinne, which features in several Irish megalithic names). Its outer walls are still pretty much covered by the surrounding bog, but looking inside you can see that the gallery goes down a full metre below ground level. Two fine overlapping roofstones - scattered with coins and little offerings - cover the whole gallery. Looking in from the front through one of the chipped away pieces of the septal slab that seals it off you can clearly see the 'wedge' shape of the gallery. Two stones to the front of the gallery form a small now-roofless portico.
20 metres or so to one side of 'Tober Gráinne' is another possible (very ruined) tomb, There are other mounds and ruined tombs in the valley and townland.

'Tober Gráinne' from the front.
photos by Ian Thompson
The interior of 'Tober Gráinne'.

~ 13.4 km N by E in Bohateh North (R 678 906, sheet 52), and splendidly located on the hills to the north of Lough Derg is another wedge-tomb - which looks more like a megalithic kist. A huge squarish capstone leans against the one remaining wall stone to the west. The north and south wall stones are present but have collapsed beneath the capstone. An odd monolith stands just to the side of the main monument and an outlying slab stands 30 metres to the northwest. The chamber would have been about 1.5 metres square internally and about 1 metre high. It's interesting to note that several of the other many tombs around here are well set into the bog, but this one has definitely been built on what would have been a high spot before the bog developed.

~ Close by Bohateh is Cappaghbeha Mountain on which there is a ruined single-chamber portal-tomb/wedge-tomb hybrid (R 661 904) affording more spectacular views. Other very ruined megalithic remains are scattered about.

~ W by N of Ballycroum in Corbehagh (R 515 937) are the neat remains of a small wedge-tomb about 1 metre high and 3 metres long, on low pasture land. To the south the ground rises and there are exposed rock-surfaces, where engraving has been reported but never photographed.

photo by Ken Williams


Ballyganner South: Burren wedge-tombs
R 220 944
Sheet 51

click on the thumbnail for a larger picture

Situated 1.5 km NW of the prominent Leamaneh Castle, this fine but damaged tomb has the largest chamber in the Burren, formed by 2 great sidestones over 5 metres long and a neatly-fitting backstone. The top of the S sidestone juts forward like a prow and bears definite traces of dressing. The front (W) end of the chamber is partly closed by a large slab which leaves a gap at the N side. Over the W end of the tomb are two broken slabs which, together with fragments inside and outside the chamber, formed the huge roof of the tomb. There is a low septal sill-stone. In 1955 a large bonfire was lit on the intact roofstone to celebrate a Hurling victory.
~ There is another wedge-tomb in the same townland, 2.4 km to the NNE (R 227 953), and one of the most beautiful, complete and remote tombs in the Burren, whose cairn survives to a height of 1.6 metres. The front of the tomb now rises out of the cairn a further 1.3 metres, and the gallery slopes down into the cairn. The walls are single slabs 3.5 metres long, both perforated. Half of the door-stone is missing, but the surviving half has a good 'soul-hole' chipped out of the top corner. The roofstone, 4 metres long, remains intact. The tomb had been, in 2003, the temporary residence of a polecat.

~ Looking from the above tomb West along its axis is another tomb in Ballyganner North (R 223 953) now located within a cashel which has incorporated some of its cairn. The gallery is some 4 metres long, and from its E end (under the broken and collapsed roofstone) a souterrain runs.
~ In the same townland is a court-tomb (R 219 956), somewhat hard to find. Its gallery also is 4 metres long, and its court (at the N end) is very narrow and rubble-filled. The tomb resembles another such outside the main distribution area - at Shanballyedmond, Tipperary.

looking from the back alkong the gallery to the portal-stones and court.

My colleague Ian Thompson (www.megalithomania.com) writes: "The big Ballyganner South tomb (first listed above) is built as if to dominate the area. Many Burren tombs seem to be built on hillsides, but here all the tombs (apart from the court-tomb) are built in prominent places. One of these is so prominent that a cashel was built around it. The nicer Ballyganner South tomb is built on a plateau but is raised up significantly.
The court tomb is situated in a much different fashion. It occupies a low spot exactly between two rises and is aligned with this mini valley.

The whole area is somewhat puzzling. Was the larger tomb built to dominate the court tomb builders? Or were the court-tomb builders intrusive ? What (if any) is the significance of the axis that the Ballyganner North (wedge in cashel) and the smaller Ballyganner South tomb share?"

~ 3 km ENE of the large Ballyganner South tomb, in Deerpark (R 248 950), is a charming but damaged wedge-tomb with a double roofstone and a 'soul-hole' at the back as at Baur South.

~ 2.4 km NW, in Noughaval (R 213 966), is a stone fort or cashel known as Cahercutteen, with exceptionally large stones and a fine flight of steps giving access to the cashel wall.

~ 1.2 km E by S of the large Ballyganner South tomb, in Clooneen (R 232 943), is another large wedge-tomb with a huge capstone and in a good state of repair.

~ 6.5 km ENE is Cahercommaun stone fort (marked Cathair Chomáin on the map at R 282 965), about which my colleague Ian at megalithomania.com writes:- "Do not let the 'Cahercommaun 1 km' sign at the road stop you from trekking to this amazing place. The path is fairly easy going apart from the last little up hill bit that takes you onto the plateau upon which the fort stands The fort itself is very ruinous, but what does remain allows you to easily envisage its form and perhaps even its scale. It was roughly D-shaped with the flat northern edge against a high cliff face protecting that side. The central area (the main stronghold) had walls 3 metres thick which protected huts within the inner sanctum, and which still reach a height of 3.5 metres in places. Outside of this are two concentric areas, within which you can still find the foundations of further huts. Before you reach the main site you walk past huge rings of stones marking where and outer settlement once stood, which in themselves are quite fascinating when you start tracing the outlines of the huts.
Bring a picnic, the family and make a day of it - but pick a nice day.

click to enlarge photo by Ian Thompson


Unfortunately, a wooden ramp with a central viewing platform has now been constructed around the perimeter of the fort.

500 metres East of the fort and facing it (R 287 966) is a small and neat unmarked wedge-tomb." (See Tullycommon under Creevagh.)


Ballykinvarga: Stone fort
R 201 950
Sheet 51

A fine and large stone fort measuring 49 by 39 metres internally, and built of large limestone blocks, it has a fine chevaux-de-frise of closely-spaced upright stones to impede attack, including a larger standing-stone - part of a destroyed megalith ? The wall, surviving up to 4.5 metres high is typically built in vertical layers so that it is as much as 6 metres thick in parts. Remains of huts can be seen built against the wall inside.

click the picture photo by Ian Thompson for a larger photo


Ballynahown: Burren wedge-tombs
M 113 031
Sheet 51

There are four wedge-tombs in this townland, the most curious of which is located in a basin hollowed out of the bedrock. Just one wall-slab and part of the backstone stands now. Another slab lies to one side and is probably the remains of the other side. There are traces of the cairn outline, which was only a little larger than the tomb itself. Directly in front of the tomb is an 40-metre square expanse of exposed karst pavement, with many stones standing up in the grooves.
Next to the south-eastern corner of this exposed pavement is a hut-circle about 7 metres in diameter, with a possible doorway on the E side.
In the same field as the tomb, at M 108 030, is another ruined wedge-tomb whose surviving sidestone is 3.5 metres long and 1.2 metres high. The large slab leaning against it is likely to have been the roofstone. Both these tombs align north-south the same direction as the main fault/erosion line runs.


~ Farther SW in the same townland, at M 110 026, under a small cliff, is a tomb in better condition, with an intact gallery forming a chamber 3 metres long and 1.5 metres tall and wide. The open end has been three-quarters blocked with sturdy dry-stone walling, and a curved wall arcs out in front. Until recently there were small buttress-slabs set at right-angles along the outside of the walls - but these are now lying in a pile to one side.

click for another view


30 metres S, on the opposite side of an expanse of exposed limestone is a massive swallow hole, with another some 75 metres E of it.
~ Farther NW again in the same townland at M 108 033 is "Caherdoon" (Cathair Dhún) a large cashel or stone fort which has not suffered 'restoration'.

~ 7 km ENE is another wedge-tomb at Derrynavahagh.


Baur South: Burren wedge-tomb
R 217 002
Sheet 51

About 8 km WSW of Ballyvaughan, on the edge of a craggy plateau and just visible from a tarred track, this fine well-preserved wedge-tomb is built typically of thin Burren slabs and contains, unusually, a chamber within a chamber 2.4 metres long, both sharing the same backstone, and retaining its roofstones. As at Poulaphuca (2.5 km NE) the E end-stone has a corner chipped off.


~ About 600 metres NE, on a farm track and overshadowed by a shed in Baur North (R 223 005) is a less-beautiful example, with grass-grown roofstone.

~ 2.4 km N by W in Berneens (M 215 025) at a height of 190 metres is a very wedge-shaped slab-built tomb whose door-slab is missing.

Berneens

~ About 1100 metres SW in Lissylisheen (R 211 992) is a small wedge-tomb with damaged gallery still embedded in its cairn, some 1.3 metres high and 4 metres in diameter.

~ 5.6 km S by E is the large but damaged tomb at Ballyganner South.

~ 1.2 km W by N is a fine stone fort at Cahermacnaghten, containing foundations of rectangular stone buildings.

~ 2 km ESE is another stone fort at Caherconnell, in use until (or re-used in) the 15th century.

Following archaeological excavations from 2007 to 2009, a prehistoric chamber with a short passage was found 30 metres southeast of the fort, within which were burials dating from the stone age to the 17th century CE!

photo by Jim Dempsey


Caheraphuca: Burren wedge-tomb
R 391 878
Sheet 58

800 metres SW of Crusheen, this tomb is not very attractive (a stone wall has been built against it) but is included because of its accessibility. It displays the characteristic wedge-shape of these tombs. A long chamber of 5 stones supports 2 roofstones.


click to see the old Bord Fáilte sign for this tomb

~ 3.3 km WNW by the roadside in Moyree Commons (R 363 891) is a ruined portal-tomb - one of only two in the Burren (the other being the much-photographed one at Poulnabrone). One portal stone stands over 3 metres high, but the other has broken at a height of around 2 metres, with the upper part leaning inwards against the taller one. The chamber is somewhat wrecked. To the front of the broken portal stone there is a very low stone which may be the remains of a small court in front of the entrance, whose doorstone is missing. A pile of cairn material lies to the N, and, curiously, a sturdy drystone wall has been built just 1 metre from the tomb.

~ 10 km NE is Derrycallan North wedge-tomb, county Galway.


Caherdooneerish: Stone fort
M 158 114
Sheet 51

At a height of about 210 metres above Black Head this fort is worth the climb up from the coast road for the Burren flora and the view over Galway Bay alone. The fort is built on a level piece of limestone karst and is roughly D-shaped. There is a terrace and traces of stairs. It is about 20 metres in diameter with jointed walls over 4 metres high and almost as thick in places. The stonework - of beautiful fissured Burren limestone - is better on the N and E sides than on the S and W, which, together with the irregularity of shape, suggests unskilful rebuilding at various times.


Cappaghkennedy: Burren wedge-tomb
R 306 978
Sheet 51

On top of a hill of deeply-fissured limestone surrounded by limestone pavements, this fine tomb is difficult to reach and requires some caution. It is almost complete, retaining its massive roofstone now broken in two. The walls are made from single slices of limestone. The backstone is missing, and so the rear section of the roofstone has dropped back slightly and now points into the air. The door-stone is a slab which is two-thirds of the width of the tomb, leaving a gap on one side. The interior rises to 1.6 metres, and the floor seems to have been paved.

There are three cairns on the hilltop, the highest one without grass covering it and bearing an Ordnance Survey trigonometrical marker. Any or all of them may contain tombs.

~ 4.4 km N in Coolnatullagh, on a south-facing slope that overlooks the little road running up the valley (M 310 031), is a tiny wedge-tomb with a roof-slab just 2 metres by one metre, and wall-slabs no higher than 50 cms. One of these has slipped, so that the roof has tipped; the other has been damaged, thus allowing access to the tiny gallery. The edge of the covering cairn can just be distinguished.

In the same townland, not marked on the map, is another cairn, apparently complete, and excavated in 1999. Unfortunately I have no co-ordinates, just the photo below.

~ 6.6 km SW is Parknabinnia wedge-tomb.


Clooney: Stone-row
R 421 802
Sheet 58

Not quite on the top of a hill and clearly visible from a by-road, this fine alignment (NE-SW) comprises three stones around 1.7 metres tall and 2.5 metres apart. The two outer stones are charmingly askew.

click for another view photo by Ian Thompson

~ 3.2 km E, and 1.6 km W by N of Tulla, by a hedge in a field to the left of a lane leading to Newgrove House (R 452 802), in Newgrove, is a small wedge-tomb which retains its roof, most of its outer-walling, and some of its circular cairn. Four mossy stones NW of the chamber may be the remains of a kerb. The roofstone is chocked by a small boulder resting on the N corner of the closing-slab at the W end of the tomb. A loose block of sandstone lying at the E end of the chamber with a round depression 27 cms in diameter and 9 cms deep may be a bullaun.

Newgrove wedge-tomb click the photo for another view

~ 4 km ENE, immediately S of a by-road in Tyredagh Lower (R 454 822) is a fine standing-stone some 3 metres tall and only 15 cm thick, 100 metres NW of which is a typical single-bullaun.

click for another view Edge-on view of slab at Tyredagh Lower
photos by Ian Thompson
A typical single-bullaun.

~ 4 km S in Ballyhickey (R 424 762), in a paddock next to a farmyard, is a fine wedge-tomb complete with orthostats and roofstones.

click for another photo

~ 13 km E on the boundary between the townlands of Clogher and Coolbaun (R 546 800) are the sad remains of a once-impressive portal-tomb, whose huge capstone sits in a wooded quagmire.

click for another photo

~ 5.6 km E by S, in a lovely setting next to a road in Milltown (R 468 799) are the neat remains of wedge-tomb whose chamber with grass-topped capstone and four orthostats survives. The picture below shows it from the back (East).

photo by Ian Thompson.

~ 4 km SSE is Magh Adhair inauguration-site (see below).

~ 9.6 km SSE in Knappoge or Knappogue (R 443 719) in a field to the west of the entrance to Knappogue Castle is a group of three stones (near the gateway) and a lone stone 200 metres away - perhaps the survivors of a row or avenue some 200 metres long. They are up to 2 metres high and of marvellously-decayed limestone.

photo by Ian Thompson

~ 12 km SSE, on the W side of the railway-line beside a ruined church at Ballinphunta (R 479 616), the remains of a wedge-tomb and its circular cairn (completely buried in field-stones and undergrowth when I visited it in 1975) stand overlooking Craughaun graveyard. The surviving square roof-stone has a number of solution-pits, and beneath and behind it the chamber (containing a fallen, smaller, roofstone) extends almost 5 metres. The door-stone is impressive.



Cloonyconry More: Wedge-tomb
R 603 719
Sheet 58

Some 8 km from O'Briensbridge is a fine, well-preserved wedge tomb crowning a low knoll.

click for another photo

~ 9 km NW is the portal-tomb at Clogher (see under Clooney, above).

~1.6 km SW is another wedge-tomb at Formoyle More (R 592 707), almost hidden amongst bushes.


Creevagh: Burren wedge-tomb
R 274 958
Sheet 51

Just W of a by-road across a stream and signposted, this is more complex a wedge-tomb than most, with grass-grown roofstone and impressive, tall, outer wall-stones. In front of the tomb is a tall slab nearly 2 metres high marking a possible antechamber.

click for more Creevagh wedge-tomb

~ 1.8 km NE in Tullycommon (R 287 966) is a tiny wedge-tomb not marked on the map, with a gallery only 1.7 metres long and 80 cms high. The tomb is 500 metres W of Noughaval stone fort (see under Ballyganner South).

Tullycommon wedge-tomb, photographed by Ian Thompson.

~ 5.4 km WSW is the large wedge-tomb at Ballyganner South.

~ 3.5 km NW is the tomb or kist at Meggagh (see under Poulaphuca).


Derrynavahagh: Burren wedge-tomb
M 180 055
Sheet 51

click on the thumbnail for a larger picture

Situated about 8 km WNW of Lisdoonvarna, this tomb, together with those at Baur South and Ballyganner North, is one of the finest of many wedge-tombs in the Burren of Clare. The flora surrounding it, and the superb view S over the remarkable limestone pavement (or karst) as far as the mountains of county Kerry (on a good day) add to its appeal. The chamber, which is about 3.4 metres long is covered at the W end by a large, broken, grass-covered roofstone measuring 2.1 by 2.4 metres. Some of the stones of the characteristic outer wall are higher than the roof. The E end is closed, and the entrance at the W end is partly closed by a high slab at right angles to the chamber.

~ 7 km WSW are more wedge-tombs in Ballynahown.


Fanygalvan & Cahermackirilla: Wedge-tomb, alignment, etc.
R 254 971
Sheet 51

A large hilltop wedge-tomb forms the centrepiece of a complex of monuments. It has a west-facing gallery 6 metres long, each side is formed by two slabs. The large wall-slab on the north side has collapsed inwards to about 45 degrees and is supported within the gallery by a small stone. This collapse gives the massive roof-slab a steep slope. It also is broken in two, with the front 1.5 metres lying on the ground in front of the gallery.

more

When intact, it would have weighed somewhere in the region of 10 tons. At the front of the gallery the front slab is still in situ, but does not fill the whole width of the gallery. On the southern side in particular the remains of the double walling are good. The massive roof-slab would not have covered the back sections of the walls, which may have been extended later.

There are actually two wedge-tombs here. A few metres to the west of the main structure there is another small, collapsed (earlier or later ?) tomb on a different axis, whose roof-slab measures around 2.5 by 1 metre, and lies on smaller slabs.
The modern field-wall to the N of the tomb marks a townland boundary.

~ Just 50 metres to the east of the wedge tomb there is a large circle of stones that could be a fairly recent enclosure, but its proximity to the other monuments suggests that it is of similar antiquity to them. Just outside its southern edge there is a small cairn whose top has been removed, exposing a small body-sized kist, only 30 cm or so wide, formed by two limestone slabs 1.5 metres long, aligned north-south and blocked by smaller slabs across the ends. The cairn itself is about 1.5 metres high and 4 metres in diameter, making the kist relatively large for the size of the cairn.

~ 400 metres S - R 254 967 (GPS R 25383 96652) - and tucked up against a 3 metre bluff there is a sub-rectangular dry stone wall enclosure measuring about 6 x 4 metres. At one side there are two large, rounded boulders that seem to form an entrance. Just outside the opposite wall there is a rounded boulder on a raised section of limestone pavement. In the centre of the enclosure there is a large boulder that appears to have a small cavity beneath it.


Fanygalvan ?boulder-burial.

click for another
The wedge-tomb in Fanygalvan and the alignment in Cahermackirilla.

~ In Cahermackirilla, immediately N of the wedge-tomb in Fanygalvan, is a NE-SW alignment of 3 stones - rare in this part of the country. (Though all over the Burren there are many small slabs set upright in the cracks in the limestone pavements - echoes of prehistoric stone rows ?) The middle stone is the tallest, at 1.6 metres high, with the smallest (possibly broken) stone at the southwest.

~ About 100 metres W is a large hut-circle some 10 metres in diameter, defined by small slabs set on end. There is a larger enclosure close by, and another hut circle lies close to the nearby chambered cairn.

~ At R 25422 97121 (GPS) is another cairn, 2 metres tall and about 10 metres in diameter. A field wall runs east-west across the foot of its southern side.
A low, ragged bump in the ground, just 30 cms high is all that remains of a second cairn.

~ Still in Cahermackirilla, at R 256 976, is a ruined cashel or stone fort occupying one of the highest spots on this particular hilltop. The walls on the west and north sides stand well over 4 metres in places. The south and east walls have disappeared and have been replaced by a thin Burren-style dry stone wall.The central area is raised at least 1.5m above the surrounding fields. Against the inside of the west wall there are the remains of two buildings, one wall standing 2 metres high. In the fields immediately to the west and east of the main structure there are a lot of smaller remains, indicating that there was quite an impressive little settlement around the cashel.

~ 2.1 km N of the Fanygalvan wedge-tomb is the tomb or kist at Meggagh (see under Poulaphuca).


Inishcaltra: Christianised megalith ?
R 698 850
Sheet 58

Also spelt Iniscealtra and referred to as Holy Island, this monastic site (founded in the 7th century) with Round Tower in Lough Derg has numerous Christian monuments, mainly 12th century and earlier. There are also no fewer than seven bullauns and a perforated slab known as 'The Bargaining Stone'.
From a megalithic point of view the most interesting structure is the ruined 'Confessional', a small chapel or oratory built around what seems to have been either the unroofed chamber of a passage- or portal-tomb, or a five-stone circle located rather far North of the Cork/Kerry distribution area. Christianised standing-stones are fairly common in Atlantic Europe, but Christianised tombs are rare: the most dramatic examples are on an island in the river Vienne near Confolens (Vienne) in France, where the orthostats of a 'dolmen' were replaced with Romanesque columns to form a chapel-shelter dedicated to Mary Magdalen; and at Cangas de Onis in Asturias, where an 8th century chapel replaced a 5th century edifice built over the remains of another megalith.

click for more click for more


Magh Adhair: Inauguration site
R 442 770
Sheet 58

Placed unusually in an amphitheatre of low hills, this eroded site, traditionally the Inauguration Place of the kings of Thomond has the usual features (like Tara) of large mound six metres high, and other earthworks in a place of older antiquity marked by megaliths. Stones are poking through the sides of the mound where the soil has eroded, because it is an earth-covered cairn-structure.


The Inauguration Mound

To the N of the mound is a large stone of purplish conglomerate with a bullaun in it, and to the W is a cairn over 3 metres high. These features are partly enclosed by an earthen bank on the E in which stand many stones, and partly enclosed on the SW by a stream on the other side of which is a two-metre high Standing-stone. Close by this site there were great gatherings down to the time of the Great Famine.

The Artist's Website
A watercolour of the standing-stone by a local artist.

~ About 500 metres SSW is the tree-overgrown triple-walled Cahercalla - which is not marked on the map. For more information on both sites, and the link with Brian Boru, see the Voices from the Dawn website.

~ 7.2 km SSW, in the grounds of Drumoland Castle, 1.2 km NNE of Newmarket-on-Fergus, is Moghane or Moughaun Stone fort (R 407 706). A triple-walled construction, commanding extensive views over the Shannon Estuary, covering an area of over 10 hectares, is believed to be the largest hill-fort in the country. At the highest point is the inner cashel or citadel with walls over 3 metres thick and a diameter of over 100 metres. Near the fort, and almost certainly connected with it, was found the largest hoard of gold objects ever found in Western Europe.

~ 3.5 km NNW is Clooney stone-row (see above).


Parknabinnia: Burren wedge-tomb
R 264 936
Sheet 51

2 km NNW of Killinaboy, this is one of the more accessible tombs in the dramatic landscape of the Burren, close to a by-road, remains of its cairn survive. The roofstone is over 3 metres long and now growing a crop of grass. The sides are formed of single massive slabs. The E (rear) end is closed and the front is partly closed, with a corner of the door-slab deliberately removed to make a 'spirit-entrance'.

click for more click for a high-resolution photograph

There are several tombs in the townland, at least one of which, visible from the tomb just described, at R 260 934, and now partly-incorporated in a wall, is very similar - though quite a lot of cairn survives, and indications of a second gallery.

Parknabinnia Two

The largest wedge-tomb, at R 258 933 is now only partly-roofed.

Parknabinnnia Three
photos by Ian Thompson

Another, recently excavated, proved to be a court-tomb.

The area around Roughan Hill has the highest density of wedge-tombs in Ireland.

~ 500 metres NE in Leana (R 269 940), overlooking the monuments in Parknabinnia, and affording splendid vistas, are a round cairn and a wedge-tomb. The wedge-tomb's cairn is quite high, with its single roof-stone tipped at an interesting angle. The gallery is aligned roughly north-south, and all four walls are in place. At the north end two overlapping stones block the entrance as at the main Parknabinnia tomb.

click for another picture another picture

The round cairn is 25 metres in diameter and 3 metres at its highest, though its dominating position makes it seem higher.
~ 200 metres S at R 269 938 in the same townland is a tiny, kist-like wedge-tomb whose gallery (80 cm wide, 150 cm long and 95 cm deep) is totally embedded in the cairn and is aligned north-east/south-west. The sidestones overlap the endstones, making it more wedge-like. There are two stones projecting from the cairn, but it is impossible to say if they are original.


Poulaphuca: Burren wedge-tomb
M 264 017
Sheet 51

About 6.5 km SW of Ballyvaughan, this tomb has a very neat box-like chamber, closed at the E end by a slab reaching to the roofstone which rests on 2 long sidestones and the backstone. As at Baur South, the E endstone has a corner chipped away.
Just 10 metres N is a small raised area with a few exposed stones sticking up, and an exposed kist at the centre made from small stones. The remains of the cairn are no more than 30 cms high. A little bit further N there is another bump that is almost certainly another kist-cairn.

Poulaphuca


click for a large hi-res photo

~ 1.3 km N, by foot across treacherous limestone pavement, in Eanty More (M 264 004) is another box-like tomb. It has a superb and perfectly-preserved door-slab at the W end, with a much smaller 'soul-hole' on the top corner at the N. Part of the roof-stone lies inside the back of the gallery, and the back-stone has been moved and thrown down. Both these tombs resemble the box-like tombs of the French causses, where 'soul-holes' are a common feature, though usually in massive side-slabs.

~ 2.2 km SE in Rannagh East (M 284 006) is one of the smaller, but better-preserved of the Burren tombs, with a gallery only 2 metres long and little more than 1 metre wide. The cairn survives to a height of about a metre, not quite reaching the large roofslab that covers the entire gallery, but has a chunk broken off.
About 5 metres to the W is a low standing stone. A further 5 metres beyond this is a small cairn, no more than 40 cms high and 2 metres across. These are not directly on the axis of the gallery, but the three features do form a straight line.

~ 3 km S by W, just N of a by-road in Meggagh (R 258 988) is a neat little tomb not marked on the map. Only 1.4 metres square and 1 metre high, it looks like a small chamber of a court-tomb - or else it is a megalithic kist...?


photo by Tom FourWinds

~ 10 km WSW is the fine tomb at Baur South.


Poulnabrone: Portal-tomb
M 236 003
Sheet 51

Next to the carved stones at Newgrange, this is the most-photographed megalith in Ireland. It is a fine tomb set on the limestone pavement to the E of the road from Killinaboy to Ballyvaughan, in the centre of a low round cairn. The entrance faces N and is marked by a low sill-stone. The thin roofslab, lifted to a height of 1.8 metres by imposing slab-like portal-stones, is tilted at the usual portal-tomb angle. The tomb has recently been repaired after damage similar to that at Ballyganner South (above).

click here for high-resolution pictures

~ 1.7 km S in Poulawack (R 233 988), and close to the more-visible Poulawack cairn (excavated and found to have been built in two phases: c.3350 and c.2000 BCE) is a rath and complex, accessible souterrain,.

~1 km NNE is Cahercashlaun cliff-fort, a roughly-oval 'cashel' also containing a souterrain, and an outer defensive wall on the NE side. The entrance is a natural cleft in the limestone, and was originally roofed with slabs.

~ 1.6 km NNW (M 230 022) is a wedge-tomb in Gleninsheen - a small, box-like tomb resembling a stone kist whose E end is now open.

Gleninsheen wesge-tomb.

Remains of two other wedge-tombs stand nearby, one of which is just 100 metres to the E and consisting of one upright side stone, another one flat on the ground, and two oddly pointed overlapping stones that would have closed the (higher) west end.


Teergonean: Court-tomb
R 068 985
Sheet 51

There is only a handful of court-tombs in Clare. This tomb sits in a hollow, beyond which is a view down to the sea. Two large chambers are entered through the remains of a court, whose tall portals and part of the left side survive.





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