Carns

This is a National Monument in State care (no. 518). Carn C in the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann passage tomb cemetery. On the bog-grown northern slopes of the Bricklieve Mountains and 10m N of possible passage tomb (SL040-087----). A circular cairn (diam. 17-19m; H 1.5m) with a slight bulge at the W where there has been some slippage downslope, is crossed by a field boundary wall. Just W of the centre of the mound there is the remains of a passage (L 3m; Wth c. 0.5m) opening to the WNW. A massive lintel covers the inner end of the passage. Beyond this the N or left-hand side and rear of the chamber area is represented by tiered corbelling which extends for a further 3m to the ESE. At about mid-length the line of corbelling bulges to the N indicating the possible presence of a side recess. The corbelling rises above a substantial body of fill that hides the orthostatic structure. Some 1.2m to the S of the line of the passage and more or less opposite the northwards bulge already referred to, a roofed polygonal chamber (max. dims. 1.7m x 1.7m) is accessible from the top of the cairn. The field wall crossing the monument separates this chamber from the rest of the tomb structure and obscures their relationship but it would seem that this is a recess opening off the right-hand side of the chamber area at the end of the passage. Two orthostats form the E and W sides of this chamber and a single example closes the S end. At the northern end there are three stones arranged in the manner of a doorstone between two jambs which support a lintel now partly displaced. The design here supports the likelihood of a connection between this chamber and the structure to the N of the field wall. The roofstone of this chamber is somewhat precariously supported on a single layer of corbels, including the lintel just mentioned. The design of this tomb is uncertain but the indications are that it is cruciform in plan (Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger 1912, 322-3; Ó Nualláin 1989, 82) 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). 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 1997). Date of upload: 27 May 2013

Passage tomb, Late Neolithic period (c. 2500–2000 BCE). Part of the Carrowkeel passage tomb complex, one of the most important and well-preserved prehistoric cemetery sites in the west of Ireland.