Megalithic tomb - passage tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

National monument No. 315. The monument has been described by Ó Nualláin and Cody (1987, 78-80) as follows: ‘The monument consists of a cruciform Passage Tomb set in a ruined cairn. The cairn, though difficult to define, especially at the west, is clearly round and measures about 25m north-south mid 22m east-west. Largely grain-grown, it is uneven and stony underfoot. Trees have been planted lo within a couple of metres of the perimeter which has been raked by tree-planting machinery.

The passage and main chamber are aligned almost north-south with the entrance to the north. The overall length of the tomb is about 10m. The side-chambers arc located mid-way along it’s length and the end or main chamber, which is about equal in length to the passage, extends to or just beyond the centre off the cairn. Somewhat taller stones are used in the construction of the main chamber than in the rest of the tomb. The entrance to the passage is flanked on cither side by two kerbstones, the inner of which in each cane articulates with the passage entrance. These vary in height from 0.6m to 1.2m. There is a displaced stone alongside the outer or the eastern pair of kerbstones. The passage, 1.3m wide at the entrance, narrows sharply and over the greater part of its length varies from 0.4m to 0.7m in width. It is composed of eight orthostats, four on each side. The outermost orthostat at the east side of the passage is 0.2m high but the remainder range in height from 0.5m to 1.1m. Outside the passage to the east there is a displaced stone.

The two transeptal chambers are set at right angles to the end of the passage: that to the west is well preserved but the northern side of the eastern one is missing. The western transept is comprised of four orthostats, three sidestones, two at the south and one at the north, and a backstone all roofed by a single slab which rests on the sidestones. The chamber, the entrance to which is partly blocked by a passage orthostat, narrows towards the rear. The chamber orthostats range from 0.6m to 0.85m in height. A displaced roofstone, 1.75m by 1.40m and 0.30m thick, rests against the outer face of the single orthostat on the north side of the chamber and the outer lace of one of the passage orthostats. Only three stones of the eastern transept survive, two sidestones at the south and what seems to be a backstone. These range in height from 0.45m to 0.8m.

The roofed endchamber is 3.5m long. It consists of three sidestones on the west side and four on the east and a backstone, all capped by three roofstones. The chamber increases in width from 0.4m at its junction with the two transepts, to 1.5m at the back. The sidestones and backstone, the last having a slight inwards lean, vary in height from 1.15m to 1.5m. The northernmost or front half of the chamber is tooted by a slab, 2.15m by 15m and 0.4m thick, supported in a horizontal position on the second pair of opposed sidestones and oversails the front or northerly pair. The southern half of the chamber is roofed by a large slab, 2.2m by l.8m and 0.45m thick, the northern end of which rests on the front roof slab and its other end supported by a small slab, 1.05m by 1m and 0.2m thick, which is held in position on the backstone and the adjacent sidestone to the east by the great weight of the superimposed slab.

In a note dated 3 June, 1952 and in a subsequent letter dated 15 September 1953 with which he enclosed two photographs, Dr. Caoimhín Ó Danachair informed this office that "about 30 yards" from the tomb just described and on a direct line from it to the tower of the old church in Ballylanders village, which is about 4.5km south south-west of the tomb, there was a circle of stones "about 6 yards in diameter" which he thought might be the kerb of a burial mound (PI. 12). He saw it in May 1952 after a bog fire in the spring of the same year had burned away “the top foot or so of the turf over the stones". He did not think it had been visible prior to that. The two photos were taken in August 1953 when heather and moss had begun to cover the stones again. A forest of closely planted trees, now almost fully grown, covers this area. In 1984 a search, necessarily limited by the trees, failed lo reveal the feature described by Dr. Ó Danachair.

OS Letters (typescript, p. 67); Borlase 1897. 49-50. Fig. 53. Coshlca No. 1: Lynch. J. F.
1897. 349; Lynch, P. J. 1901-04, 284; Lynch. P. J. 1905-08, 221 and Plate facing; Lynch,
P. J. 1920, 119-120, Plate VI; Westropp. 1916-19, Plan opposite p. 167; Westropp 1917,
464 (Plan, same as Westropp 1916-19), 477-8; Mahr 1937, 349 footnote 1; Powell 1938,
248, No. 14; Ó Nuallain 1968, 25, No. 42; Herity 1974, 262.’

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 9/1932).

See linked document with details from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume IV. Counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1982)

See attached plan of monument LI044-077----_06 taken from Ó Nualláin and Cody 1987.

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 12 July 2018

References

Ó Nualláin, S. and Cody, E. 1987 Passage tombs in the Suir valley region. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 117, 69-83.

Lynch, J.F. 1896 Caherconlish. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 2, 307-316, 345-360, 385-392, 443-449 & 467-477

Westropp, T.J. 1916-19 The later Pagan sanctuaries of Co. Limerick. Journal of the North Munster Antiquarian Society 4, 3, 157-83.

Westropp, T.J. 1916-17 On certain typical earthworks and ring walls in Co. Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 33C, 9-42, 444-92.

ASIAP - Archaeological Survey of Ireland Aerial Photographs (c. 1996 - c. 2010).

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

Lynch, P.J. 1901-4 Cromlechs in Co. Limerick. Journal of the Limerick Field Club 2 (8), 283-4.

Mahr, A. 1937 New aspects and problems on Irish prehistory - presidential address for 1937. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 3, 261-437.

Powell, T.G.E. 1938 Excavation of a megalithic tomb at Ballynamona Lower, Co. Waterford. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 68, 260-72.

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

Lynch, P.J. 1920 Topographical notes on the barony of Coshlea, Co. Limerick. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 50, 99-127, 342-6.

Lynch, P.J. 1905-8 Cromlechs in Co. Limerick. Journal of the Limerick Field Club 3, 15-17, 54-7, 127-33, 217-68.