Carn

This is a National Monument in State care (no. 518). Carn M in the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann passage tomb cemetery. About 400m S of a passage tomb K (SL040-093----) and a possible passage tomb (SL040-094----) and c. 80m N of another passage tomb (SL040-102----) on the N edge of a small plateau with views limited to local horizons. A small, roofless, NW-facing cruciform passage tomb rises clear of a substantially grass-grown circular cairn (diam. c. 10m; H 1m). A passage (L 1m; Wth 0.7m) is separated by a sill from a central space (L c. 0.8m; Wth c. 0.6m) opening off which are two opposed side-chambers, one to the right (L c. 1m; Wth c. 0.9m), another to the left (L c. 0.8m; Wth 0.4m) and an endchamber (L c. 0.8m; Wth 0.4m). None of the tomb orthostats exceeds 0.8m in height. Some slabs lie prostrate on the mound forward of the passage which according to Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger (1912, 330) was originally 10 feet (c. 3m) long. A small excavation of the cairn (Bergh 1987, 32) led to the recovery of human bone at the edge of the tomb. Radiocarbon dating of a human tooth yielded a date in the interval 2451 to 2039 cal BC and of charcoal a date in the interval 3370 to 3042 cal BC (Bergh 1995, 105). (Ó Nualláin 1989, 83) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005). Date of upload: 18 January 2008 See linked documents with details from Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume V. County Sligo. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1989) together with a plan and sections of the monument (surveyed 1993). Date of upload: 27 May 2013

Passage tomb, dating to the Neolithic period (c. 3200–2500 BCE). It is part of the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann cemetery, an important site for understanding early megalithic funerary practices in northwest Ireland.