Megalithic tomb - passage tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

This passage tomb and its adjacent companion (DU025-001002-) are located on the crest of Montpellier Hill, just SE of a ruinous hunting lodge called the Hell Fire Club (DU025-001003-). The monument enjoys panoramic views N and E with those to the S and W somewhat restricted by forestry. These passage tombs are part of a cluster of passage tombs situated largely along the N and W perimeter slopes of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains.
The monument appears as a hollowed-out mound (dims. 18.8 N-S; 26m E-W; H 1.5m) enclosed by a shallow ditch with an external counterscarp bank running from E-W. It may have been re-configured into a ring-barrow at some time in prehistory. That portion of the monument at the NE adjacent to the Hell Fire Club is clearly robbed-out and in this quadrant the mound is flattened.
There were kerbstones, not apparent today, visible along the perimeter in the SE which were recorded first from the diaries of Austin Cooper, an 18th century antiquarian who visited the monument in 1779 (Herity 1974, 257; Price 1942, 66 Healy 1975, 1-19). Cooper writes “"On The Top of the Hill of Montpelier stands a house built by the late Mr. Connolly, it is all arched and is now entirely out of Repair. Upon the Top of this Hill formerly stood a Kaim, which was removed to make room for the house... behind the house are still the Remains of the Kaim, the Limits of it, were composed of large Stones set Edgeways, which made a sort of a Wall or Boundary of abt. 18 Inches high & withinside those, were the small stones heaped up. It is 34 yards Diameter or 102 in Circumfe. In the very Centre, is a large Stone 9 feet long, 6 feet broad & abt. 3 feet thick, not raised upon large Stones but lying low, with the Stones cleared away from about it. There are several other large Stones lying upon the Heap. About 60 yards S.W. of this Stands a single Stone, of abt. 5 feet high, but whether. it is a part of this Druidical Remains, or only put up there for the Cattle to scratch themselves (the Use it is now made of) I shall not positively say" (Price, 1942).
In 2016 a research excavation (16E0497) funded by Dublin South County Council took place with the purpose of assessing whether any archaeological features were present and what the nature of those deposits were. (Jackman 2016, 1-33). Two trenches were excavated ; Trench 1 15m x 2m orientated N-S running from the centre of the monument towards the external edge and Trench 2 10m x 2m orientated E-W across the centre of the northern quadrant in the most disturbed part of the monument. Original cairn material was identified relating to the tomb construction by excavation. The enclosing fosse which follows the edge of the monument was identified as a late robber trench probably associated with the quarrying of kerbstones as building material for the construction of the nearby Old Military Road at the beginning of the 19th century. Within layers of disturbed deposits were some significant finds including a polished stone axehead and a decorated stone. Further analysis will determine whether this stone belongs with the corpus of megalithic art.

Compiled by: Margaret Keane

Revised upload on: 7 July 2018

References

Price, L. (ed.) 1942 An eighteenth-century antiquary: the sketches, notes and Diaries of Austin Cooper, 1759-1880. Dublin.

Herity, M. 1974 Irish Passage Graves. Dublin. Irish University Press.

Healy, P. 1975a Second report on monuments and sites of archaeological interest in county Dublin. An Foras Forbartha Teoranta.

Healy, P. 1975b Third report on monuments and sites of archaeological interest in county Dublin. An Foras Forbartha, Dublin.

Jackman N. 2016 Preliminary Report on Excavation 16E0497 Montpelier Hill, Co. Dublin. Unpublished Report, Abarata Heritage, Dublin.