Brehons Chair

Located in gently sloping pasture, W of the River Dargle. Three tall granite orthostats survive forming three sides of a chamber which opens to the SSE (H 2.7m; Wth 2.35m; D 2.3m). The E portal-stone leans on the doorstone. A fourth stone had been broken up c. 1876 (Ó Nualláin 1983, 82, 96; Borlase 1897, 2, 393-4). Excavations undertaken between 1984 and 1987 revealed an oval-shaped cairn and concentrations of charcoal and cremated bone associated with the orthostats. A secondary pit burial in the cairn contained an inverted Food Vessel accompanying a cremation (DU022-033002-). N of the orthostats were a series of pits and post-holes and a linear trench, which produced a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age stone and pottery assemblage (DU022-033003-). A bowl furnance dating to the Iron Age was also revealed in this area (Keeley 1986, 18; 1987, 14-15; 1989-90, 74). Monitoring of groundworks in the same field as 'The Brehon's produced a sherd of coarseware pottery. The fill was burnt, and it is possible that some burning did occur within the pit (Reid 2000, 35). Compiled by Geraldine Stout Date of upload: 26th April 2012

Portal dolmen; Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. Its orientation and surviving portal-stone suggest ritual or ceremonial significance, typical of megalithic tombs in the Boyne Valley region.