Megalithic tomb - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Excavations along the Bord Gáis Pipeline between Carrickmines and Bray (licence no. 98E0445) revealed the remains of a multi-phased site incorporating a megalithic structure: this had been erected into a pre-existing fulacht fia. It was described by O'Neill (2000) as follows: 'The main components of the megalithic structure are a gallery of roughly parallel side-walls, orientated on an east-west axis, and a closely set outer walling. The stones are set within an irregular mound rather than sockets. Two buttress stones are present towards the eastern end of the gallery, where they rest against the outer walling. Neither could be definitely claimed to be functional. The gallery and the mound material around the orthostats were not excavated, leaving these features in their original position. There was a gap in the mound at the eastern end of the gallery, identifying this end as the front of the structure. The western end of the gallery is sealed by a low orthostat, and the whole structure had been placed within an artificial depression. This had been excavated into sloping ground. The orthostats in the northern wall of the gallery were noticeably higher than those in the southern wall. Traces of a cairn were present around and within the western end of the gallery. There were no surviving traces of a capstone. Externally the gallery is some 2.35m long and measures 3.4m across at the eastern end and 1.5m across at the western end. Internally it is 1.95m long, tapering from 1.42m across at the eastern end to 0.96m across at the western end. The mound surrounding the gallery was not fully examined as the eastern end lay beyond the limits of the site, where it is likely to have been heavily disturbed by a field boundary ditch. Its maximum identifiable width was 14m, and it was at least 9m long. The gap in the eastern end of the mound was 2.14m wide and was at least 1.65m long. It was positioned directly in front of the opening at the eastern end of the gallery.' While the design of the gallery has obvious affinities with many of those in the wedge tomb class, to which it was assigned by the excavator, the lack of any burial remains coupled with the atypical orientation, must caution against it being accepted as a definite example.

Image: DU026-132----_01. The monument in the course of excavation. Photograph looking east.

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 27 July 2017

References

O'Neill, J. 2000 Carrickmines- Bray Gas Pipeline, Carrickmines Great/ Laughanstown/Ticknick/ Rathmichael/ Shankill/ Ballyman. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1998: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 37-9. Bray. Wordwell.