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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb

Berneens, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Berneens, 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
Berneens
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Cromlech (1916)
Coordinates
53.06717, -9.17054
SMR number
CL005-118----

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 a level stretch of good grazing in an area with outcropping karst, within a multiperiod field system (CL005-227004-). The immediate views are restricted from N to S by a natural scarp c. 60m to the E. Indicated and named ‘Cromlech’ on the 1916 ed. of the OS 6-inch map and described as a ‘wedge-shaped gallery grave’ by Westropp (1907, 459).

The following details are from de Valera and Ó Nualláin (1961, 8, attached). A poorly preserved wedge tomb with a just S of W aligned chamber (L 3.25m; Wth at rear 1.25m) set in an oval mound (9m E-W; 7m N-S). The only element of the chamber that remain in situ are the N sidestone (L 3.9m; H at front 1.15m; H at rear 0.7m; T 0.1-0.2m), the E end of the S sidestone’s base (L 0.8m; H 0.2m) and a damaged backstone (L 1.25m; H 0.5m). Well-set stones, c. 0.35m to the N (L 0.75; H 0.12m) and S (L 0.5m; H 0.15m) of the E end of the chamber and to its SW (L 0.35m; H 0.13m) may be remnants of an outer wall.

The following items have been uploaded:
CL005-118----_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).
CL005-118----_01.jpg View of tomb from E
CL005-118----_02.jpg View from N
CL005-118----_03.jpg View from S

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 4 April 2023

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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