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Goakstown : Wedge Tomb

CountyAntrim
Grid RefD 316 108
Longitude5° 56' 48.89" W
Latitude54° 55' 38.7" N
Nearest TownGlenarm (4.5 Km)
OS Sheet9
UTM zone30U
UTM x311178.30257409
UTM y6090690.0128021
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Visit Notes

Sunday, 20th July 2003

The tomb is sited on a southwesterly slope and is 10m long, 5m wide at front and tapers to around 4m wide at the rear. The inner gallery is just over 1m wide. This relative narrowness makes the front appear to be a split portico at first, but after locating the gallery walls beneath the grass you can tell that it isn't it isn't. Several sill stones can be traced beneath the grass and cairn rubble too and a fine and curious doorstone separates the gallery from the portico. This has either recently (i.e. in the last 150 years) been broken or is two well fitting stones, which would have left a possible crawl hole at the top left corner into the tomb when the roof and mound was in place. One huge facade stone stands to the front of the entrance.

One roofstone is in place near to the rear of the gallery with many others displaced. The main structural stones that are visible are the external double walling. These stones, all local sandstone, show clearly the wedge shape of the monument, rising in height from back to front. The largest of these is 1.6m tall and 1.5m wide.

Slemish dominates the SSW horizon in an unavoidable manner, making its presence very obvious.

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All Sites Visited On 20th July 2003    « Previous Site    Next Site »

Sunday, 13th April 2008

It has been nearly five years since I was shown this site by Anthony Weir. It seems like yesterday, really. At the time of this visit there were young lambs in the field, so I didn't enter, and made do with looking at it over the hedgerow alongside the track that runs past it.

The top of the monument is now heavily crowned with large gorse bushes. They might look pretty when in flower, but the damage that the roots are doing to the structure could be very costly on the long run.

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All Sites Visited On 13th April 2008    « Previous Site    Next Site »

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Random Gazetteer

A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments

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8.5 Km (W) there is a Portal Tomb at Ticloy.
6.4 Km (W) there is a Stone Pair at Antynanum.
2.9 Km (SSE) there is a Cross-Inscribed Stone at Dunteige.
2.9 Km (SSE) there is a Wedge Tomb at Dunteige.
2.8 Km (SE) there is a Cairn at Ballygawn.

A Selection of Other Wedge Tombs

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