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Carrowleagh : Court Tomb

CountyMayo
Grid RefG 364 210
GPSG 36393 20978 (4m)
Longitude8° 58' 23.56" W
Latitude54° 8' 1.8" N
Nearest TownInishcrone (11.7 Km)
OS Sheet24
UTM zone29U
UTM x501750.37611073
UTM y5998412.3747901
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Visit Notes

Saturday, 7th June 2008

This site is a must-see for anyone interested in megalithic monuments. The problem is that it's very hard to locate! This is because it is completely buried in peat. Without a GPS visitors will need local help to find the tomb. It is best to go on a Saturday, when there will probably be someone cutting peat nearby.

The court is still mainly buried below the peat and is not visible. Here and there the top of a stone pokes through, but these may not be from the structure. There is a large exposed stone set opposite the gallery entrance in a position I have never seen a stone before.

The gallery is almost complete: just one out of the three probable roofstones seems to have been removed. The two remaining roofstones are massive. These are supported by corbelling formed from split boulders. The gaps between these are plugged up with well-fitting stones in a most expert fashion. The coorbelling rests on the vertical wallstones, which are about 50cm tall. The height of the chamber is around 1.7m with the extra height being provided by the corbelling.

More often than not, when you visit a court tomb all you see is the low wallstones, and you wonder how such a low structure could have been used. Seeing the inside of this near-perfect tomb shows you that most court tombs would not have been low structures at all.

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How Other People Have Rated This Monument


James Smith from Dublin
K Kelly from Mayo - deserves 10 stars

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Random Gazetteer

A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments

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8.8 Km (SSE) there is a Court Tomb at Carrowreagh (Co. Sligo).
7.9 Km (NNE) there is a Portal Tomb at Tawnatruffaun (Co. Sligo).
8.5 Km (SSE) there is a Court Tomb at Carrowreagh (Co. Sligo).
1.7 Km (NW) there is a Wedge Tomb at Carrowleagh.
6.9 Km (SW) there is a Wedge Tomb at Carrowcrom.

A Selection of Other Court Tombs

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