Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Cist
Largatreany, County Donegal, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Largatreany
- County
- Donegal
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- SMR number
- DG015-002----
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
This record refers to a cist which was located on a sandhill near Dunfanaghy. It consisted of a conical mound topped with rough stones, and was, according to local tradition, the burial site of a giantess. It was investigated in 1897 by Archdeacon Baillie and his son Captain Baillie. Having dug into the mound, they found a flagstone (7 feet [c. 2m] by 5 feet [c. 1.5m]) covering a cist which contained human bones. The following day the cist and its contents were greatly damaged by ‘a number of roughs’, but parts of two skulls were saved and ‘sent to Dublin’ where they were identified as belonging to an elderly male and a younger, adult female (Frazer 1898, 49-52). The exact location of the cist was not recorded; it was described as being ‘situated on the top of a sandhill which, at high tide, is surrounded.’(ibid, 49).
Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy
Date of upload: 27 August 2015
References
Frazer, W. 1898 Find of cist with human remains, Dunfanaghy, County Donegal. (Reported by Archdeacon Baillie) Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 28, 49-52.