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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb

Ballynahown, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Ballynahown, County Clare, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Ballynahown
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.07018, -9.33168
SMR number
CL004-066002-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

On flat rocky ground with higher ground to the E and commanding views of the ocean from SW to NW over the Clare Coast and Galway Bay and within a large field system (CL004-027001-). It is one of four wedge tombs (CL004-066002-, CL004-066001-, CL004-071---- and CL004-073----) known as the Ballynahown group in the Megalithic Survey (De Valera and Ó Nualláin 1961, 41).

A poorly preserved wedge tomb with a SSW-aligned chamber (est. L c. 3m) which rises toward the front and is surrounded by a low mound (est. diam. c. 9.5m; H 0.6-0.75m). It was recorded in the Megalithic Survey as CL. 45 (De Valera and Ó Nualláin 1961, 40) (although the orientations cited in the written description are incorrect). The E side stone remains in situ (L 3.5m; H 1.3m at SSW; H 1.15m at NNE; T 0.1m); it is cracked towards the centre and the top edge is broken but traces of dressing are visible. A slab (L 3m; Wth c. 1.9m; T 0.1m), most likely the roofstone, leans against its W face.

Field inspection in 1998 noted that the interior is filled with large, flat stones. Long flat slabs incorporated into the nearby field wall c. 30m to the E may originally have formed part of the tomb. Another wedge tomb (CL004-066001-) is located c. 91m to the S.

The following items have been uploaded:
CL004-066002-_01.pdf Details from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume I. County Clare. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1961).
CL004-066002-_01.jpg View from N
CL004-066002-_02.jpg View from NNE

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Lynda McCormack

Date of upload: 14 June 2022

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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