This great wedge tomb was the main purpose of the climb up here. It is located amongst bumpy, peaty ground on the edge of a limestone pavement with just the roofstones rising above the level of the ground around it. The western end is in good condition, as good as you will find anywhere, with a complete fa?ßade and side stones. The gallery is fairly complete, but a chain secured around one of the roofstones shows that it is lucky to be that way: somebody obviously had a good go at dismantling it quite recently.
The box-like remains of the gallery are about 3m long x 2m wide x 1.5m tall. Extending from this to the fa?ßade stones you can just make out the stumps of the slabs that would have formed the walls of the portico/entrance section.
The outline of a wedge-shaped cairn can be made out around it, but very little of the cairn material remains. This is about 9m long (E-W) and 5m wide at the west, tapering to about 3.5m at the east. The gallery has been blocked by a drystone wall about halfway along and the slabs of the eastern end have been removed and a little enclosure built (it looks that way to me - I doubt it was built this way).
From this spot the peaks of the mountains to the south rise above the near horizon and all the dips in these peaks seem to coincide with the line of the hill. To me this seems likely to be the reason why this place was chosen. To the west are some massive swallow-holes which could also have played a part in this choice.
This is such a peaceful spot. I doubt that you'll ever be disturbed if you decide to make the journey to see this.
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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. |