What an incredible monument. There are actually at least two monuments here the first (and probably the earliest) is a double court tomb set in a well marked trapizoidal cairn. This is aligned roughly east-west. The western tomb could actually be earlier than the western one, so there may be three monuments.
The eastern tomb has a short, narrow court with two very well matched, stocky entrance jambs leading to a 4m long gallery. The courtyard is set back into the cairn by about two metres, which could indicate again that it was added to later.
The western tomb is back-back with the eastern one. The gallery is similar, except that it has a side chamber on the south side. The courtyard is broader than that of the east tomb and opens into the facade of the cairn.
Added onto the front of the western facade, on a different alignment, is a third court tomb. This has a court facing roughly west and is built so as to still allow access to the western court of the double court tomb. The courtyard of this monument seems to have been buch larger than the others, but a field wall cuts through part of it and so it is hard to be sure. The orthostats of the courtyard are much larger than that of the earlier monument. This gives me the impresion that it was appended as a bigger and better ritual site, perhaps because the land upon which the builders farmed was starting to deteriorate and they perhaps felt that building a grander tomb would appease their gods.
Nephin Mountain dominates this site and must have been an important landmark for the builders.
All Sites Visited On 16th March 2003 « Previous Site Next Site »
Ballyglass (Co. Mayo) | Dunmaurice (Co. Monaghan) | Knockergrana (Co. Donegal) |
Kilclooney More (Co. Donegal) | Gortatoor (Co. Mayo) | Corlealackagh (Co. Monaghan) |