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'Carnfadrig' : Portal Tomb

TownlandBallwholan
CountyTyrone
Grid RefH 556 491
Longitude7° 8' 38.64" W
Latitude54° 23' 14.64" N
Nearest TownClogher (3.2 Km)
OS Sheets18, 28A
UTM zone29U
UTM x620516.52249554
UTM y6028212.508745
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Visit Notes

Sunday, 8th June 2003

This really is an odd structure. Not just odd, but Weird! Very weird! Take the time to look at the excavators plan of the monument before heading up to it. You will see that it is a very unique and complex monument. On entering the clearing with the tomb in you find a long cairn. This is grass and tree covered, but on the day of my visit the grass was freshly cut, making it easier to see what is what. At the east end of the cairn is what appears to be the remains of a portal tomb. One of the portal stones now leans against the other. and the chamber is slightly ruined too.

At the west end of the cairn you can see the remains of a large subsidary chamber, running across the width of the cairn, very similar to those found in some court tombs. Be very careful if you decide to walk up the centre of the cairn, because, as you will have seen on the plan of the site, there are lots of chambers set in between these two features.

I didn't really get any feeling for this site. The freshly cut grass and the overbearing pine trees gave an all too evident impress of modern interference. As a unique site it is very worth a visit though. What I would like to know is this - This site and Carnagat (County Tyrone) are very accessible (this one even has its own car park), but why aren't they signposted from anywhere? There is not a single sign pointing to these sites that I saw!

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All Sites Visited On 8th June 2003    « Previous Site    Next Site »

Saturday, 4th June 2005

I didn't actually mean to come here today, but we missed the turning for Carnagat (County Tyrone). Not to worry, because it did show me that the grass cutting prior to my last visit wasn't a one off. The small area around the cairn is kept cut back, but I really do wish that they'd clean the top of the cairn up. Without all the trees and shrubs this could be a very interesting site to visit. As it stands now it is very difficult to see what's going on.

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All Sites Visited On 4th June 2005    Next Site »

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Random Gazetteer

A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments

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6.9 Km (N) there is a Passage Tomb at Knockmany.
4.1 Km (E) there is a Bullaun Stone at Altadaven known as St. Patrick's Chair & Well.
2.5 Km (SSE) there is a Court Tomb at Ballywholan known as Carnagat.



A Selection of Other Portal Tombs

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