Megalithic tomb - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

This monument stands at the end of a rocky ridge c. 100m from the western shore of the outer end of Killybegs Harbour. Set on a SE-facing slope in rough pasture, it commands an extensive view southward across Donegal Bay. Rising ground restricts the outlook to the N and W.
The monument is quite ruined but seems to have consisted of a chamber or gallery aligned NW-SE. The structure stands at the NW end of a grass-grown, stony mound of broadly rectangular outline measuring 9m NW-SE by 3.8m NE-SW and 0.7m high. A field fence runs along the eastern side of the mound, and the slight remnants of a fence can be identified running westward from its northern end.
The eastern side of the structure is represented by two stones. The northern one, hatched on plan, leans slightly to the W and is 1m high. That next to it at the SE, the base of which is obscured, leans markedly to the E. It is 0.85m long and 0.2m thick and would stand c. 1m high if upright. A toppled stone leans eastward and rests on this. This stone, 0.8m long, 0.2m thick and c. 1m high if upright, may originally have stood at the W side of the structure. The southern end of this is overlain by another displaced slab measuring 1m by at least 0.6m by 0.25m thick. To the W of the last two is a partly buried prostrate slab measuring 1.3m by at least 0.5m by 0.15m thick. North of this and at the inner face of the stone shown hatched on the plan is another prostrate slab, also partly buried, measuring 1.2m by at least 0.4m by 0.15m thick.
A large displaced roofstone, 3.2m by 2.6m and 0.4m thick, rests in a sloping position across the southern half of the collapsed structure. The western side of this great slab is on the ground, and its eastern side is tilted skywards. It now rests on the southern end of the upright stone and on two of the displaced slabs.
This is clearly a ruined megalithic tomb, but the remains are insufficient to enable its classification.
Conaghan 1974, 15 ('at Drumanoo close to the seashore'); Ó Nualláin 1983a, 43, no. 114; SMR 1987, 97:34; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; RMP 1995, 97:34.

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)