Again looking towards the NNE, this time over the ruined remains of the 2- or 3-chambered gallery.
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ryaner
Oriented NNE-SSW, this is from the SSW at the back of the tomb. Most of the stones in the foreground here are unsocketed and broken remains of the original construction.
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South towards Carlingford Lough with the east end of the Cooley peninsula in Co. Louth in the distance.
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No trace of a cairn or court remains, just a long three-chambered gallery, and I guess we should be grateful for that.
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No court exists here now – these are the entrance jambs to the three-chambered gallery.
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Across the chamber looking out through the portals, blinded by the light.
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A metre and a half tall and about 40 metres from the shoreline at the easternmost tip of the Cooley peninsula.
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Over the mound and across the mouth of Carlingford Lough towards the magnificent Mournes.
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There’s not much positive to say here, except that I’m glad I made the effort. The main remains of the tomb, a photo of which can be seen in the Archaeological Survey of County Louth, are in danger of being lost forever in a dense tangle of hazel, bramble and scrub vegetation.
The plan in the above mentioned book shows an interesting court tomb, with a main single-chambered gallery and three lateral chambers, these last being the only remains in any way visible. Shame really, and not unexpected, but disappointing all the same.
Stones of another of the lateral chambers, this at the south-west end of the tomb.
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The stones at the foreground left are part of one of three lateral chambers towards the rear of the tomb, the main remains of which are completely inundated by dense vegetation and are in danger of being lost forever.
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The rear of the tomb, narrowed to about a metre and a half.
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The segmenting jambs between the second chamber and the small gap, before the tomb continues on to the third, narrow and longest of the three chambers.
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The segmenting jambs between the first and second chambers.
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The stones of the tomb are mostly rough-hewn and blocky and could almost be described as ugly.
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The tomb is aligned north-east/south-west with the court at the north-east end. This looks over the monument south-west towards Dundalk Bay.
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A farmer in Co Westmeath has said he thought 4,000-year-old Early Bronze Age axeheads found in his field were old horse ploughs, or scrap.
Thomas Dunne said the discovery was made after a piece of machinery fell off during silage cutting on his field in Coralstown.
The National Museum of Ireland issued an appeal earlier this month, after the axeheads were sent anonymously to the museum at the end of June.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Philip Boucher Hayes, Mr Dunne said: “We were cutting silage in a field when I felt a piece of steel come off the mower.
“We were afraid it would go into something else, so we got a man with metal detector to go and look for it.
“He found these under a row of beech trees. “We thought they were just bits of old horse ploughs or scrap. We could have thrown them back into the ditch the very same!”
The National Museum of Ireland has issued an appeal after 4,000-year-old Early Bronze Age axeheads were sent anonymously to the museum at the end of June.
The sender had fashioned packaging from a cardboard box of Flahavans Flapjacks with foam inserts inside cut to the exact size of the axeheads, each one smaller than the palm of a person’s hand.
They were accompanied by a letter stating they were discovered in the Westmeath area using a metal detector.
The museum has dated the axeheads to around 2150-2000 BC.
The sender said they wished for the axeheads to be conserved by the Museum but did not provide any contact details or further specifics.
The museum said the axeheads were “thoughtfully packed in foam cut-outs and cardboard, ensuring their safe arrival.”
More: rte.ie/news/2024/0713/1459683-national-museum-axeheads/
From the National Museum:
museum.ie/en-IE/News/Appeal-for-information-about-Bronze-Age-Axeheads-F
The southern side of the heather-covered cairn showing some exposed cairn material.
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Herity reckons this is another passage tomb on Slievenamuck Hill.
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The collapsing backstone of the main chamber leans in towards the viewer, remaining partially upright because it’s tightly caught by the sidestone on the right. The padstone presses down on the backstone and, in turn, is struggling under the weight of the main roofstone, the whole shebang delicately poised and in danger of complete collapse.
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The 2.2 metre long, almost floating roofstone covering the front of the main chamber and the end of the passage. It’s held there magnificently by the weight of the rear roofstone pressing downward, balancing its rear delicately there on a couple of chamber sidestones.
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The rear of the chamber is roofed by a 2.2 metre long slab. It rests on a padstone to the left and the other main chamber roofstone to the right. This delicate balancing act is a neolithic wonder but is probably not original as the heavy stones seem to have shifted with the removal of the surrounding cairn.
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The rear of the tomb, showing, from the top, the chamber roofstone, a padstone resting in the (deliberately carved) shoulder of the eastern, rear sidestone and the backstone that leans inwards and would probably collapse if it wasn’t being held up by the western rear sidestone. The massive rear roofstone leans on the top of the back of the second roofstone, visible here just off centre.
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The front of the tomb, looking over the western kerbstones.
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The small, better preserved, western chamber of this cruciform passage tomb
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The two roofstones to the left of the shot cover the main chamber at Duntryleague. Another roofstone covers the western side-chamber.
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Fantastic tomb with most of its structure still extant – the portico/ante-chamber is impressive on this one.
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In the small hamlet at Lough Gur crossroads – it had its own fógra once upon a time.
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At Lough Gur crossroads, 1.2 metres tall, 1.9 metres long.
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In the next field south of Grange Lios stone circle.
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1.5 metres tall, 2.4 metres long.
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Anomalous stone grouping, down here as a stone row, thought by some to be the possible remains of a court tomb. There are more stones beneath the brambles.
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Looking north-west at this impressive and bulky stone.
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The west face of the stone looks as if it has been worked to give a flattened plane.
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