Megalithic tomb - court tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

This tomb, discovered in 2011 (pers. comm. Emmett Connolly 11th May 2011), is situated on top of a low drumlin in undulating pasture land. It stands at the W end of an abandoned farmstead and an out-building has been built at its E end. As part of a working farm over many generations (the buildings are represented on the OS 1st ed. map) the monument has suffered accordingly. It was planted with conifers and its E end incorporated in a stone field boundary: the remnants of older boundaries abut the NW and SE ends of the monument. The presence of modern dry-stone walling in the subsidiary chamber to the S of the monument suggests that this may have been used as a possible animal pen or storage area.

The remains consist of a long cairn measuring at least 30m in length and approximately 13m wide. Three substantial upright stones indicate a U-shaped court at the W; it is c. 7m long by at least 6.5m wide. At the E end of the court two well-matched jambs (see MO012-094----_03.jpg) give access to the gallery, 6.7m long by 1.8m in maximum width, represented by four sidestones at the N and two at the S with a low inset backstone closing its E end . There is no evident segmentation of the gallery though, given its length, it is likely to have had two chambers. Three upright stones are all that remain of a subsidiary chamber that opens off the S side of the cairn beyond the galley. A substantial orthostat standing beside the corner of the out-building at the NE end of the cairn may mark the location of another subsidiary chamber. Little survives of the cairn at the E end of the monument where the stones were incorporated into field boundaries. Seven contiguous stones form a line of revetment along the N side of the cairn which, if the surviving stones of the S subsidiary chamber represent its original extent, then this would give an overall cairn width at this point of 11m.

MO012-094----_01.pdf Plan of the monument.
MO012-094----_01.jpg View of the monument looking E with the outermost court-stone incorporated in a field boundary (right).
MO012-094----_02.jpg View of inner surviving S court-stone with the entrance jambs beyond: a ranging rod stands between the jambs.
MO012-094----_03.jpg Two well-matched jambs mark the entrance to the gallery.
MO012-094----_04.jpg View of the subsidiary chamber opening off the S end of the cairn.

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 4 October 2011