Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in a forest clearing on a level platform on the N slopes of Kilmashogue Mountain. From an account of this monument prior to the growth of forestry in the environs it commanded extensive views to the N, E and W (Kilbride-Jones 1953) .
This site comprises a gallery with a curved alignment ENE-SW (L 6m; Wth at SSW 1.8m; Wth at NNE 1.5m) divided into a main chamber and an antechamber. It is enclosed by three lines of orthostats, forming a wedge-shaped plan. Only the N portion of the cairn survives (D. 0.80m) but it appears originally to be oval in form without an obvious kerb. To the S the remains of a kerb has been identified, as a curving arc of stone-sockets, some with packing stones. The antechamber is composed of four orthostats and at the NE a portal stone with its main axis at right angles to the chamber matched with a similarly placed stone socket on the other side. The chamber is defined by a rear back stone and front septal stone and orthostatic side walls. These consist of three parallel close-set rows of orthostats. The side wall at the N leans sharply inwards. According to the excavator this happened soon after construction. The floor of the chamber, which had been cut into the subsoil below the level of the antechamber floor was covered by a thin grey deposit with some cremated bone and charcoal and a single unworked piece of flint. The backstone was cut into subsoil below the level of the chamber floor while the septal stone which is well squared off sits on the chamber floor itself held in place between orthostats with cairn material.
Two secondary features, Cist 1 and Cist 2, at the centre of small sub-cairns, are located in the NE quadrant of the cairn, to the rear of the gallery. Cist 1 is composed of four stones set on edge measuring internally 1.05m by 0.60m and is 0.45m in depth, covered by a domed capstone. The cist floor was fire-reddened and it contained a single upright food-vessel, near the NE side of the cist. Cist 2 lay to the S of Cist 1. It is composed of three small stones set on their long edges, and contained another food-vessel and quantities of cremated bone. Within the overall cairn material are another two dense concentrations of cairn material, in addition to those over the cists, possibly indicative of more secondary burials, as well as a small fireplace defined by stones and filled with powdered charcoal just NE of Cist 1.
A third secondary feature, Cist 3, is located in the ante-chamber. It comprises a circular area in a circular pit dug into the subsoil and lined by eight stones forming a polygonal cist with a single thick stone as a floor and with a capstone above. On the stone floor an inverted cinerary urn was placed containing large amounts of cremated bone (Kilbride-Jones 1953, 461-79; Healy 1975a 1-19; Turner 1983)
This is a National Monument in State Ownership (No. 493).

Compiled by: Geraldine Stout and Margaret Keane.

Uploaded on: 22 January 2018

References

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

Kilbride-Jones, H.E. 1953-4 The excavation of an unrecorded megalithic tomb on Kilmashogue mountain, County Dublin. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 56C, 461-79.

Turner, K. 1983 If you seek monuments: a guide to the antiquities of the barony of Rathdown. Rathmichael Historical Society.