Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

This wedge tomb is a National Monument (no. 270) in state care. On a SE-sloping, grass-covered crag in rough pasture, commanding wide views out NE-W and within an extensive multiperiod field system (CL010-064001-). Marked as a rectangle and labelled ‘Dermot & Grania’s Bed’ on both the first (1842) and later, Cassini editions of the OS 6-inch map. Perhaps considerably damaged by fire c. 1880 about which Westropp (1896, 365; 1913, 247, Footnote 4) records, ‘… a long cromlech, much injured by fire [and] partially destroyed …’. Described by de Valera and Ó Nualláin (1961, 47) as a partly damaged wedge tomb (L min. 2.7m; Wth at W 1.6m, narrowing to 1.3m at E) orientated ENE-WSW, and embedded in the semicircular remains of a low mound (c. 9m NW-SE; c. 4.5m NE-SW; max. H c. 0.5m) which was visible around the W end of the tomb. A modern drystone wall running NNW-SSE covered the E end of the tomb. This wall was part of a collapsed hut, collapse from which also appeared to have formed a grass-covered heap of stones just to the N of the tomb. This hut may relate to a reference to this tomb in the OS Letters of 1839, ‘under which many poor families have lived!’ (Comber 1997, 22).
The N and S sides of the tomb each comprised a single, large limestone slab set on its long edge. The very fine N slab (L 4.5m; H 1.37m at W, sloping to 1m at E; T 0.15-0.25m) was cracked 1.65m from its W end, and the top edge was worked on both sides. The S sidestone (L 3.25m; H 0.9m; T 0.1-0.15m) was broken with most of its top missing and its E end covered by the drystone wall collapse from a later hut. The W end of the tomb was closed by two slabs, one (L 1.05m; H 1m; T 0.1-0.15m) at the S set perpendicularly to the sidestones and with a broken top edge, and another (L 0.75m; H 1.2m; T 0.15-0.2m) at the N standing at a more oblique angle. The E end of the tomb was concealed by a later drystone wall. Many loose and broken slabs of diverse sizes (largest fragment L 1.75m; T 0.15m) were observed leaning at angles within the tomb chamber. Some of these were thought to possibly be pieces of the tomb’s capstone. Others appeared to be rubble from the later drystone hut abutting the E end of the tomb. An inspection of the tomb in 1999 found it unaltered in the interim.

See attached document CL010-064023-_01.pdf with details from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume I. County Clare. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1961).

See attached images:
• CL010-064023-_01.jpg View from the SW
• CL010-064023-_02.jpg View from the SSW
• CL010-064023-_03.jpg View from E
• CL010-064023-_04.jpg View from SE

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott

Date of upload: 12 May 2023

References

Westropp, T.J. 1896 Prehistoric stone forts of northern Clare, parts I & II. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries 26, 142-58, 362-9.

De Valera and Ó Nualláin 1961 Survey of the megalithic tombs of Ireland, vol. i, County Clare. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Westropp, T.J. 1913 Prehistoric remains (forts and dolmens) in the Corofin district, Co. Clare (no. 11). Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries 43, 232-60.

Comber, M. (ed.) 1997 The antiquities of County Clare: John O’Donovan and Eugene Curry: Ordnance Survey Letters 1839. Clasp Press. Ennis.