GAZETTEER of
IRISH PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS

 

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SELECTED MONUMENTS IN
COUNTY LIMERICK

Place-names in italics refer to listed entries.

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Duntryleague: Passage-tomb
R 779 284
Sheet 73

On the top of Duntryleague Hill, now regrettably covered in conifer forest which engulfs it, this fine skeletal passage-tomb without any of its cairn still retains the roofstones of its long passage and its wider, cruciform chamber whose 3 roofstones are stepped one above the other in a style common in Brittany.

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Lough Gur: Stone circles, crannógs, tombs, hut-sites, etc.
R 640 410
Sheet 65

Lough Gur has a great concentration of prehistoric remains, including wedge-tombs, foundations of huts, stone circles, standing-stones and crannógs (artificial refuge-islands in lakes).

The most famous of these monuments is the Late Neolithic or very Early Bronze Age stone circle and henge in Grange townland, situated to the E of the Bruff-Limerick road. Heavy stones stand shoulder to shoulder against a massive bank of gravelly clay 10 metres wide, 1.3 metres high and nearly 70 metres across. Most are of local limestone, but some are volcanic breccia from over a mile away. Of these the heaviest stone, known as Rannach Cruim Dubh (prominent black stooper), weighs over 60 tons, and aligns with midsummer sunrise.
The most important of several alignments, however, is that of the short stone-lined entrance passage with two massive stones at the opposite side of the circle, whose tops form a V-notch for observing the moon's minimum midsummer setting in 2500 BC.

~ A short distance NNE is a second circle, smaller, but also constructed of large stones.

~ To the N of the latter is a large, gently-leaning standing-stone.

~ Near the NW corner of the Lough is a stone-built crannóg now surrounded by marsh instead of water.

~ To the S of the road skirting the S shore of the Lough is a wedge-tomb some 9 metres long, with a slab-roof gallery and a separate chamber at the SW end.

~ About 750 metres SW, on the same side of the same road is another - ruined - wedge-tomb, known as Leaba na Muice (The Pig's Bed).

~ On the other side of the Lough are more standing-stones, circles, and another crannóg, as well as stone forts, and neolithic house-sites.

~ The visitors' centre is better than many.

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