Megalithic tomb - passage tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

Carn H in the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann passage tomb cemetery. About 50m S of and slightly upslope from another passage tomb (SL040-089----). A circular cairn (diam. 20m; H 2.5m), inside the perimeter of which there is a quite well-preserved kerb (diam. 14m), contains a NW-facing undifferentiated passage tomb. Only the outer half of the passage is now accessible. In 1911 (Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger 1912, 328-9, 335) a slab at the entrance and the outermost roofstone were broken up and removed to allow access. However it was not possible to crawl all the way along the narrow passage so entry to the chamber at the end of the passage was gained by quarrying through the top of the cairn and raising roofstones. This part of the tomb, now covered by cairn slip, is inaccessible. The published plan (ibid.) shows the passage (which is slightly curved) and chamber to be some 8.5m long. The outer third of the structure is at most 1m high and wide and it would seem that the chamber at the inner end is of comparable dimensions. The middle part of the structure narrows to about 0.5m. The orthostats of the outer part of the passage are unequal in height so drystone-walling is employed to provide a reasonably level surface for the roofing lintels. Two jamb-like stones seem to mark a point of segmentation about 1m from the entrance and the published plan (ibid.) shows three sillstones further along, one of them dividing the passage from the chamber. Finds at the site consisted of burnt and unburnt bones, a stone bead and a sea-shell. A stretch of field boundary (T 4m; H 0.4-0.5m) (SL040-090002-) composed of stone rubble and slabs laid lengthways extends from the W side of the passage tomb into the bog. A megalithic structure (SL040-091----) lies c. 30m to SE. (Ó Nualláin 1989, 83)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).

Date of upload: 18 January 2008

See linked documents with details from Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume V. County Sligo. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1989) together with plans and sections of the monument (surveyed 1996).

Date of upload: 27 May 2013