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county list
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| Court-tombs = Portal-tombs = Wedge-tombs = Passage-tombs = Stone Circles | France | |
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SELECTED MONUMENTS IN
Place-names in italics refer to listed entries.
Baurnadomeeny: Wedge-tomb
Across 2 fields to the S of a farm lane, 800 metres NE of Rear Cross, this fine and carefully-constructed, but overgrown, "Dermot and Grania's Bed" has a large chamber over 4 metres long, separated by a septal slab from the antechamber/portico, over which a single-slab roof is supported by 2 free-standing orthostats. The easternmost roofstone of the gallery has a wide, deep groove on the underside, and several of the boulders of the circular cairn (15 metres in diameter) have cup-marked or pocked surfaces. The N orthostat beside the septal slab has a kind of chessboard pattern of incised, criss-cross lines. Excavation revealed that the antechamber was originally open at the W, with a low sill-stone marking the entrance, but this was later closed by double arc of inclined slabs. Inside the antechamber is a roofless kist, which contained cremated bones. There were four other cremations in the antechamber and 16 others in pits and kists in the cairn, some of which were thought to be secondary. The tomb is reputed to have been used as an IRA refuge or hideout during the unrest of the period 1916-1922.
~ 1.6 km E is a standing-stone, and there is another standing-stone 2.8 metres high in the lane near the wedge-tomb. ~ 1.5 km SSW , 400 metres S of Rear Cross,to the W of the road to Pallas Grean (R 842 585) is Shanballyedmond court-tomb, a southern outlier of the type. To the prevailing wedge-tombs it may owe its small size, U-shaped kerb and narrow, funnel-shaped forecourt. The gallery has two chambers, near which is the kerb of orthostats originally linked by dry-walling. Joining on to the ends of the court - which excavation found to be paved - was a kind of palisade which led right round the tomb over 2 metres out from the kerb. ~ 10.5 km E by N is Knockcurraghbola Commons wedge-tomb.
Gortavoher: Multiple-bullaun
"The Blessed Stone" is a fine, almost circular boulder of quartz conglomerate about 1 metre in diameter lying to the W of "Woodview Farmhouse", which is 5.6 kms due S of Tipperary town, in a little modern enclosure on the S side of the by-road from Gransha to Galbally, running parallel with the Aherlow river. It has three large complete bullauns (hemispherical depressions) whose maximum diameter is 30 cms and whose maximum depth is 17.7 cms. Two other bullauns have been eroded by water, and a sixth is very shallow. There are 2 less perfect bullauns on the underside of the boulder, whose name might originally have meant 'The Blessing-stone'.
~11 km WSW is the passage-tomb at Duntryleague , county Limerick.
Knockcurraghbola Commons : Wedge-tomb
Description: 300 metres S of the road from Inch to Upperchurch and to the west of a by-road, this impressive, but partly-ruined wedge-tomb crowns a knoll which offers fine views of an amphitheatre of hills. The gallery survives to a length of over 11 metres, with good double-walling on the S. The façade is missing, but a fine door-slab remains in position. Two large roofstones are also in place, covering the SW (front) end of the gallery.
~ 10.4 km W by S is Baurnadomeeny wedge-tomb. |
