Megalithic tomb - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

This monument, no visible trace of which now remains, was first shown on the 1847-8 edition of the OS 6-inch map. It stood in level pasture 400m SW of the River Finn and below the lower slopes of Altnapaste Hill, 1 km to the S.
Thomas Fagan (1845-8) saw the monument in 1846 and sketched the remains. His sketch, which lacks a scale and an orientation indicator, presents an oblique view of the structure. He described it as 'the ruins of a pagan sepulture called Labba Grania' that lay almost E-W and appeared to have been 21 feet (c. 6.4m) long. Four upright stones were then in place, three of the S side of the structure and one at the W end. The last stone was 7 feet (c. 2.l5m) high, 41/2 feet (c. 1.4m) wide and a 1/2 foot to 1 foot (c. 0.15-0.3m) thick. One of the stones at the S was 4 feet (c. 1.2m) high, 5 feet (c. 1.5m) long and a 1/2 foot to 1 foot (c. 0.l5-0.3m) thick. The other two here were described as 'of much lesser size'.
Fagan's account seems to describe the inner end of an E-facing gallery, the stone at the W possibly representing a backstone and the other three stones part of the S side. Although his sketch indicates a narrowing of the gallery toward the presumed backstone, a feature of the endchamber of many court tombs, the monument remains unclassified.

Fagan 1845-8, book 13, 8 (sketch); Ó Nualláin 1983a, 44, no. 116; SMR 1987, 68:26; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; RMP 1995, 68:26.

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).