Megalithic tomb - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

This monument, named 'Standing Stones' on the various editions of the OS 6-inch map, appears as 'Remains of Druid's Altar' on the pre-publication map of 1846-8. It stands on a ridge in pasture c. 5.5km E of the inner end of Lough Swilly, across which there is an extensive outlook. Just outside the western edge of the monument the ground falls sharply, and to the E, beyond a gentle decline, there is a rise to the summit of the Dooish Mountain range, 1.5km distant.
The monument, of which only a single orthostat survives in its original position, has been incorporated in a grass-grown field bank. The extant orthostat is gabled in outline and aligned NW-SE. It is 1m high. To the E, along the wide grassy field bank, is a considerable scatter of small field stones, as well as four larger, displaced stones, which are shown on the plan. Three of these are partly embedded in the ground. The largest, 2.5m E of the surviving orthostat, measures 1.5m by 1.3m and is 0.6m thick, and the smallest, a loose boulder next to the orthostat, is 0.7m by 0.5m by 0.25m.
According to Thomas Fagan (1845-8), who visited the site in 1846, two upright stones 7 feet (c. 2.15m) apart then survived, the remains, he suggested, of 'a pagan altar or sepulture'. Apparently the second stone was still standing at the beginning of the 20th century, as the site is named 'Standing Stones' on the 1905 edition of the OS 6-inch map.
The nature of the depiction of the site on the original OS 6-inch map (1834-5) and on the revision of 1846-8 indicates that there was a considerable cairn at this spot in those years. On both maps a shaded space, approximating to a long oval in outline and representing an area c. 40m long (NE-SW) by 15m in maximum width, is shown here and seems intended to represent a cairn or mound. Cairn remains cannot now reliably be identified but may have been incorporated in the field bank crossing the site. The surviving orthostat is set transversely to the long axis of the supposed cairn. This circumstance, and the fact that the stone is gabled in outline, strongly indicates that it is the backstone of a gallery. It stands near what was the NE end of the cairn.
The monument must remain unclassified, but the presence of a possible gabled backstone and the likelihood that there was a long cairn here suggest that this was probably a court tomb or, less likely, a portal tomb.

Fagan 1845-8, book 8, 10; Lacy 1983, 80, no. 396; SMR 1987, 54:23; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; RMP 1995, 54:23.

The above description was published in the 'Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI, County Donegal.' Compiled by: Eamon Cody (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002).

Date of upload: 22 September 2008

See linked document with details from Eamon Cody, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI. County Donegal. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002)