Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Mass-rock
Ballymacool, County Donegal, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Ballymacool
- County
- Donegal
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- NULL
- Latest-edition OS map
- NULL
- Coordinates
- 54.95601, -7.75537
- SMR number
- DG053-046----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1881 "Ireland to Illustrate the Military Condition of the Country." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Situated in a rough, wet, scrub-covered, secluded, steep N-facing mountain side. The monument comprises a roughly-built altar dating to the period when the Penal Laws were in force. The altar is an irregularly-shaped slab (L 0.7m; Wth. 0.42m; H 0.3m) aligned NW-SE. This is supported on its NE side by a single boulder and on both its NW and SE sides by a relatively large uprights topped by narrow, horizontally placed, packing slabs to achieve a relatively level surface . The SW side, presumably where the sacred vessels etc. were temporarily held, is left open.
NW side:
Upright stone - H 0.3m; L 0.25m; Wth. 0.25m
Slab 1 - H 0.1m; L & Wth. as above
Slab 2 - H 0.04m; L & Wth. as above
SE side:
Basal stone - H 0.25m; L 0.05m; Wth. 0.4m
Slab 1 - H 0.07m
A short distance NW is a recently-erected cairn bearing the date 1980.
Nearby in the register
- Ringfort - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
- Standing stoneunder 1 mi
- Souterrainunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.