What a quaint place. Snuggling into a bend in an ancient trackway at the corner of a field this is quite a surprise.
Much of the low mound is still around the tomb, which still has one roof stone in place. The chamber, exposed at one end, is about 2m long by 80 cm wide, with a height of just 60cm.
For some reason this is one of the prettiest litle tombs I have seen, but I can not quantify why. Perhaps it is just because what I saw here was so unexpected.
This site just got prettier! On this visit the area in front of the open end of the tomb and the slopes of the cairn were covered in bluebells. The weather was a little more clear today, too, and I was able to see the lough to the west.
The under side of the remaining roofstone has been worked and is extremely flat. The 'rear' of the gallery is formed by two stones, which makes me think it might actually be the front.
This is not easy to find. From Tramore take the R682 north west and then the first left. About 400m after the second right hand turn you will come to a track on the right. Park here and follow the track and then the sunken path around the fields. The tomb is situated in the fields to the right where the path takes a sharp right turn.
This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |