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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Megalithic structure

Málainn Mhóir, County Donegal, Ireland

The record

Townland
Málainn Mhóir
County
Donegal
Country
Ireland
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
54.68920, -8.77020
SMR number
DG089-022----

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Shown on 5 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1869 "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Norman Moore (1872) noted what he believed may be the roofstone of a chamber protruding from the heather on a bog-grown ridge to the E of the group of portal tombs (DG089-008----; DG089-008001-; DG089-008002-; DG089-008003-; DG089-008004-; DG089-008005-) in this townland. This supposed chamber, best described as a cist, consists of a roofstone covering a cavity outlined by stones on edge and measuring c. 1m N-S by 1.3m E-W. The structure is open to the N, and single stones form its E, S and W sides. The roofstone overlies these stones, and a pad-stone has been employed to support it above the junction of the eastern and southern stones. The northern end of the roofstone is tilted upward slightly, and the southern end is buried. It measures 1.8m E-W by at least 1.1m N-S and is 0.15m thick. The floor of the cist is no more than 0.6m below the underside of the roofing slab. Just 0.3m W of the open northern end of the structure there are two set stones. The larger one, to the E, measures 0.7m by 0.4m, and both are 0.5m high. Approximately 1.3m to the S is another stone, the tallest at the site. It measures 0.5m by 0.3m by 1.1m high. This stone and the two preceding ones may represent some form of kerb. Approximately 1m W of the possible kerbstones there is a dip in ground level that may indicate the presence of a mound. (N. Moore 1872, 522-3; Borlase 1897, 248, under Banagh nos. 3-8; Herity 1990, 51, no. 44)
(National Monument no. 139 (4))

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), 226, no. 43.

DG089-022----_01.jpg: View of the monument looking south.
DG089-022----_02.jpg: View of the monument looking west.

Updated by: Paul Walsh

Date of revised upload: 23 March 2015

Borlase, W.C. 1897 The Dolmens of Ireland, 3 vols. London. Chapman and Hall.

Cody, E. 2002 Survey of the megalithic tombs of Ireland, vol. 6, Co. Donegal. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Herity, M. 1990 Gleanncholmcille. Tógra Ghleanncholmcille.

Moore, N. 1872 'Appendix A', in J. Fergusson, Rude stone monuments in all countries; their age and uses, 520-25. John Murray. London.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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