Megalithic tomb - passage tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

This is a National Monument in State care (no. 518). Carn F in the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann passage tomb cemetery. Close to the western edge of a heather-covered bog-grown ridge and 200m S of another passage tomb (SL040-095----) on the same ridge. A largely collapsed N-facing passage tomb (L 6.2m) is partly exposed towards the N side of a round cairn (diam. 29m; H 5.5m). The site was investigated in 1911 (Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger 1912, 324-7, 333-4) by which stage it was in a state of partial collapse. The upper part of the roof had given way causing the chamber area to fill with stones from the cairn. Clearance revealed a short passage leading to two pairs of side-chambers and a terminal chamber. Sillstones divided the passage into two compartments and stood at the front of each side-chamber. A standing stone, its butt still in place and upper part prostrate alongside, stood between the inner pair of transepts and in front of the terminal chamber. The roof, constructed of oversailing corbels, is estimated to have been some 5m high. It had been capped with a large slab which lay displaced on the cairn in 1911. In the course of clearance this stone was broken up and removed. Some corbels became displaced during the work and were also removed. Finds recovered all came from the inner end of the structure and included some burnt bone, a complete bead and two broken examples. During the 1911 investigation the stone fill from the inner part of the tomb was moved to the front which had already been cleared. This material and further cairn collapse since 1911 now covers most of the orthostatic structure including the side-chambers. At the front four stones, two at either side forming the outer end of passage, and at the other end the tops of three orthostats, the backstone and the sidestone adjoining either end of it, are now visible. Two lintels are exposed near the front of the passage. Three overlying corbels rest on the backstone and these support a roofstone at the rear of the tomb. Corbels are exposed along the length of the structure. (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).

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 plans and sections of the monument (surveyed 1995).

Date of upload: 27 May 2013