Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

The remains of this monument were described as follows (Jones et al. 1996, Site E): 'The tomb is very ruined and consists of a damaged chamber, aligned east-north-east/west-south-west, incorporated in a sub-circular mound. The northern side of the chamber consists of two stones, a small low block at the west and beside it a long slab. The top of the slab slopes from west to east. An inclined slab set inside the line of the northern side crosses the west end of the chamber. Several displaced slabs are exposed along the south side of the chamber. The original dimensions of the chamber cannot be obtained but it was at least 2m long. The tomb is surrounded by a substantial mound between 0.6m and 1m high. Protruding from the mound at the west and south is a series of almost prostrate slabs which may be the remains of a kerb'.

Excavations in 2015 (licence no. 15E0053) by Ros Ó Maoldúin (Ó Maoldúin 2015) revealed that the chamber was centrally set within a circular kerbed cairn, c. 7m in diameter. A second inner kerb-line, most obvious to the rear of the chamber and c. 4m in diameter, was exposed within the cairn. A substantial amount of cremated and unburnt human bone was recovered, mostly from the chamber though no obvious grave goods were found there. An unburnt, and partially articulated, adult was uncovered within the stones stacked up outside the NNW end of the chamber. Several lithics, mostly debitage, were recovered from in and around the cairn but could not be linked stratigraphically to the chamber burials (Ó Malodúin 2015).

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 15 September 2016

References

Jones, C. and Walsh, P. 1996 Recent discoveries on Roughan Hill, County Clare. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 126, 86-107.

Ó Maoldúin, R. 2015 Preliminary report on the excavation of wedge tomb CL017-180002-, Parknabinnia, Co. Clare. Licence 15E0053. Unpublished report, National Monuments Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.