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Tawnamachugh : Portal Tomb

CountyLeitrim
Grid RefG 798 447
GPSG 79817 44722 (6m)
Longitude8° 18' 37.54" W
Latitude54° 21' 2.52" N
Nearest TownManorhamilton (10.1 Km)
OS Sheet16
UTM zone29U
UTM x544820.07669978
UTM y6022761.0867033
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Visit Notes

Sunday, 16th May 2004

I had never heard of this portal tomb before, which usually means that noone consideres it to be good enough to place on the web, but I was willing to give it a chance being as I was up on the hill anyway. From the wedge tomb at Aghamore (County Leitrim) I could see what I assumed to be a large drystone wall higher up - I didn't think for one minute that this could actually be where I was heading. As I drew closer it became apparent that it was precisely where I was heading. This thing is massive!

At over 65m long I think this might just qualify as the longest long-cairn in Ireland, but don't quote me on that. It runs across the face of the hill from east to west with a ruined chamber at the east. Halfway along on the south edge is a very unusual circular feature, that my even be a hut foundation, sticking out of one side. I really must say this again: This cairn is 65m long!

The location is even more remote than the cairn and wedge tomb at Aghamore, both of which can be seen from up here. These seem to falsely sit on ridge between the sites; a placement that might have been intentional.

Looking in the Leitrim Inventory this site was said to have had a chamber with a lrage capstone in a report dated 1999. I don't think this is correct, unless the description is just very poor. There is a large slab, which may have been the capstone resting on a single stone, but this is not as large as reported in the entry. A very nice, very rectangular slab lies nearby with some coral fosils embedded in it.

The cairn tapers from 12m wide at the east end to 8m wide at the west, where there is a couple of slabs that might indicate a former subsidiary chamber.

Of all the sites I have been to I think this is one of the most amazing, perhaps because it is so little known. I kept walking up and down the length of it making peculiar "Wow!" sounds - I'm kinda happy that it's so remote!

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All Sites Visited On 16th May 2004    « Previous Site    Next Site »

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Random Gazetteer

A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments

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7.7 Km (N) there is a Wedge Tomb at Aghanlish.
500 m (SE) there is a Cairn at Aghamore.
6.4 Km (NNW) there is a Court Tomb at Shesknan.
8.7 Km (NW) there is a Portal Tomb at Gorteen (Co. Sligo).
1.1 Km (SSW) there is a Hut Circle at Aghamore.

A Selection of Other Portal Tombs

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