'Browne's Hill' : Portal Tomb
Visit Notes
Sunday, 26th August 2001
What a sight this amazing portal tomb is. As you approach it via a footpath from the car park, it stands in the center of the field looking like a tiny, grey creature skuttling across the field, but frozen in time. Then, when you realise that the little specks moving about are people and not sheep, the scale of this dolmen hits you.
Estimated at weighing over 130 tons the capstone is said to be the largest in Europe. It is certainly the largest I have ever seen.
There is a pleasant seating area laid out around it, but sadly has only concrete benches. None the less, it is a pleasant place for a picnic. Three Italian girls were doing just that when we visited. My kids really enjoyed running around, in and out of the mighty chamber that has an internal height of over 2 m.
Sunday, 4th November 2001
I revisited this site to have lunch and take some better photo's. It started raining as I arrived and so I had my sandwiches sitting inside the chamber .... magic!
Sunday, 14th April 2002
As we arrived here we saw several kids climbing over the enormous capstone. As we got close they left and we had the place to ourselves for a while. Then some older teenagers turned up and kind of ruined the moment. Time to leave this monster to act as a climbing frame and move on.
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Friday, 27th September 2002
I am so happy that I brought my torch with me, because it was pitch black when we arrived here with just the spooky glow of the Carlow street lights behind it . Looking at it just by shining the torch over it turns it into a different monument. It looms even more massively when viewed like this.
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Saturday, 6th May 2006
What better place to test out my new 10-20mm lens than at this monster! It's alway a pleasure to visit this amazing monument anyway, but on such a beautiful day the experience is doubled. The cows milling around were also appreciated as they added some scale.
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Like this monument
Marked Sites
Old Images
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_Directions
Take the R726 from Carlow and follow the signs to "Browne's Hill Dolmen". There is a dedicated parking space by the side of the road. To access the dolmen there is a path around the edge of the field.
Random Gazetteer
A Selection of Other Portal Tombs
About Coordinates Displayed
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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. |
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