Mihanboy : Portal Tomb
Visit Notes
Sunday, 14th July 2002
Finding this one took some time, because once again I approached from the wrong direction. It was when I was 50 yards into the water meadow that I realised that I had forgotten my boots! Anyway, the effort was well worth it.
The tomb has a massive capstone, now sadly slipped and deforming the large chamber beneath. One portal stone stands to a height of 2.3m. The chamber is blocked by a half height door stone, about 1.2m high. Not much of the cairn remains - I think this has been used to make the dry stone wall that incorporates one side of the chamber.
The capstone is a 3m wide, 4m long and 40cm thick slab of mudstone. 4m to the rear of the tomb is a large rectangular slab which must have been the back stone of the chamber. The map shows the tomb next to a stream near to a confluence with a second one, but it seems to stand on the edge of a sunken pathway, perhaps a dry stream bed.
Its location is quite idyllic under the deciduous trees with the sun filtering through the leaves above.
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_How Other People Have Rated This Monument
| Ciarán Ó Cuinneagáin from Roscommon |   |
| Anthony from Athlone | |
| Anthony from Athlone | |
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A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments
9.9 Km (SSE) there is a Round Tower at Clonmacnoise (Co. Offaly).
7.4 Km (NW) there is a Sweat House at Eskerbawn.
8.9 Km (NNW) there is a Sweat House at Ardmullen.
6.2 Km (NW) there is a Sweat House at Cornageeha.
A Selection of Other Portal Tombs
 Ballyquin (Co. Waterford) |  Banshee Stone (Co. Carlow) |  Ballygraffan (Co. Down) |
 Sandville (Co. Derry) |  Mount Venus (Co. Dublin) |  Athenree (Co. Tyrone) |
About Coordinates Displayed
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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. |
