Dolmens Are a Girls Best Friend

Carrowkilleen : Court Tomb

CountyMayo
Grid RefG 083 168
Longitude9° 24' 5.97" W
Latitude54° 5' 31.43" N
Nearest TownCrossmolina (5.5 Km)
OS Sheet23
UTM zone29U
UTM x473729.74813795
UTM y5993839.2915483
Hide map  (N.B. Google Maps & GPS readings are slightly out of sync - position is approximate)
Show inline map (by Google Maps)

Visit Notes

Sunday, 16th March 2003

What an incredible monument. There are actually at least two monuments here the first (and probably the earliest) is a double court tomb set in a well marked trapizoidal cairn. This is aligned roughly east-west. The western tomb could actually be earlier than the western one, so there may be three monuments.

The eastern tomb has a short, narrow court with two very well matched, stocky entrance jambs leading to a 4m long gallery. The courtyard is set back into the cairn by about two metres, which could indicate again that it was added to later.

The western tomb is back-back with the eastern one. The gallery is similar, except that it has a side chamber on the south side. The courtyard is broader than that of the east tomb and opens into the facade of the cairn.

Added onto the front of the western facade, on a different alignment, is a third court tomb. This has a court facing roughly west and is built so as to still allow access to the western court of the double court tomb. The courtyard of this monument seems to have been buch larger than the others, but a field wall cuts through part of it and so it is hard to be sure. The orthostats of the courtyard are much larger than that of the earlier monument. This gives me the impresion that it was appended as a bigger and better ritual site, perhaps because the land upon which the builders farmed was starting to deteriorate and they perhaps felt that building a grander tomb would appease their gods.

Nephin Mountain dominates this site and must have been an important landmark for the builders.

Click Thumbnail to View Full Size Image

Click To View Large Image_Click To View Large Image_Click To View Large Image_Click To View Large Image_Click To View Large Image_Click To View Large Image_

All Sites Visited On 16th March 2003    « Previous Site    Next Site »

How Other People Have Rated This Monument


K Kelly from Mayo

Have you visited This Monument?

If so, give it a rating for others to see
Your Name
Where are you from?
Rating

A Selection of Other Court Tombs

AddThis Social Bookmark Button Valid CSS Valid HTML
Top of page | Feedback | About this site
© Copyright Tom FourWinds 2001-2008