Not many boulder burials lie close to a road, so I thought this one was worth checking out while passing. It may be just 50m from the road, but it is 50m across a salt marsh and getting to it is a rather interesting excerise.
From the roadside its large flat capstone looks like a turtle sitting in the reeds, its base flush with the ground level. The area around and beneath it has been excavated out and the four stones supporting the top can be clearly seen.
This little tomb is definitely situated to pay some form of homage to the only landmark in the area, the low, but dominating Dunmaus West Hill.
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. |