Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Megalithic tomb - unclassified
Kilmonaster Middle, County Donegal, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Kilmonaster Middle
- County
- Donegal
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- NULL
- Latest-edition OS map
- Giants Grave (Site of) (1906)
- Coordinates
- 54.82301, -7.57075
- SMR number
- DG070-069001-
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
This feature, of which there is no visible trace, was first shown on the 1845-7 revision of the OS 6-inch map. It stood 50m SW of the last. Thomas Fagan identified it as a 'Giant's Grave' and wrote that it, like the last described, was 'enclosed by large flags standing 1 to 2 feet [c. 0.3-0.6m] high'. He added that it occupied a space measuring 24 feet by 14 feet (c. 7.3m by 4.25m) within which lay 'a flat stone 6 feet [c. 1.8m] square and 1 to 21/2 feet [c. 0.3-0.45m] thick and in one end raised 2 feet [c. 0.6m]'. According to an entry in the OS 1:2,500 Name Book (1903-4), all trace of this monument was removed in around 1870.
Fagan's account seems to describe some form of megalithic structure, but its nature is not at all clear.
Fagan 1845-8, book 10, 32; OS 1:2,500 Name Book, sheet 70 (1905), 72; Ó Nualláin 1968b, 12-13, site H; Herity 1974, 214, Dg. 8; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 36-7, no. 82; SMR 1987, 70:69; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; RMP 1995, 70:69.
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
Nearby in the register
- Megalithic tomb - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
- Megalithic tomb - passage tombunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - cashelunder 1 mi
- Megalithic tomb - passage tombunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.