It took me a while to find this tomb in its thicket of thorn trees. I had directions from a nearby farm, but the lady hadn't been to the site for a long time.
I walked into the trees from the north and was immediately disappointed by what I could see. It looked like a ruined gallery was all that remained. This bit must have actually been field clearance or a ruined subsidiary chamber.
After a few minutes of looking at the bits I'd found I saw the true remains of the gallery and they are very nice indeed. Six orthostats remain, one of which is a jamb stone projecting into the gallery. There are two roofstones in place! Amazing! The front is a fine gabled stone that sits on the orthostats immediately behind the entrance jambs.
Moving to the front of the gallery there are a few stones from the court in place on the east side. The other side has gone, though. The court would have been quite narrow and not very deep. From this side you can see that the monument is built on a platform of cairn material about 1m high. The outer court stone is set into the edge of this.
A great place that would be amazing if it was cleared of the trees.
This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |