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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb

Gortlecka, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Gortlecka, 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
Gortlecka
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Cromlech
Latest-edition OS map
Cromlech (1916)
Coordinates
52.99157, -9.01108
SMR number
CL017-046----

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 very low, overgrown E-W ridge in pasture, with limestone pavement c. 140m to the N. Drawn and labelled as ‘Cromlech’ on both the first (1842) and Cassini (1920) editions of the OS 6-inch map. This megalithic tomb comprises a single, large upright slab, orientated N-S (L 2.5m N-S; H 1.2m; T 0.2m) set in a cairn (10.6m N-S; 8.2m E-W; H c. 0.6m). There are two large stones lying prone adjacent to the upright slab: one (L 2.4m; Wth 1.8m) immediately to the E, and the second (L 1.7m; Wth 1.1m) just to the SE. A third, smaller slab (L 1.3m; Wth 0.6m) lies further to the E, in the vicinity of which there is also a NW-SE orientated pavement-like cluster (L 2.3m; Wth 1.6m) of smaller flat-lying, flat-topped slabs (each c. L 0.3m; Wth 0.3m) which are unrelated to the tomb. Westropp (1905, 212) interpreted the upright stone as the W side of a ‘dolmen’. De Valera and Ó Nualláin (1961, 57) proposed that this may have been a wedge tomb, observing that the slab set on edge resembled the sidestones of many wedge tombs in NW Clare. There is a cist (CL017-076----) c. 260m to the W, and a wedge tomb (CL010-110----) c.685m to the ENE.

 

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott

 

Date of upload: 13-10-2025

References

de Valera, R. and Ó Nualláin, S. 1961 Survey of the megalithic tombs of Ireland, vol. 1: County Clare. Dublin. Stationery Office. Westropp, T. J. 1905 Prehistoric remains (Forts and Dolmens) along the borders of Burren, in the county of Clare. Part 2 - west Corcomroe. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 35, 342-61.

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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