Carns

This is a National Monument in State care (no. 518). Carn K in the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann passage tomb cemetery. About 130m S of and somewhat upslope from the megalithic structure (SL040-091----), 10m E of a possible passage tomb (SL040-094----) and c. 400m N of another passage tomb (SL040-101----). A round cairn (diam. 21.5-23m; H 3.5m) covers a well-preserved cruciform passage tomb opening to the NNW. The tomb (L 7.7m) consists of a passage (L 4.5m; Wth 0.65-1.1m) leading to a chamber (L 1.4m; Wth 1.9m; H 3.4m) opening off which there are two opposed side-chambers, one to the right or W (L 1.35m; Wth 1.4m; H 2.2m), another to the left or E (L 1m; Wth 1.2m; H 2.1m) and an endchamber (L 1m; Wth 1.4m; H 2m). The tomb is constructed of orthostats with dry-wall infill which support a series of lintels, a number now cracked, and oversailing corbels capped by a large flat slab above the main chamber. Sillstones divide the passage into three sections and are in place at the front of the two side-chambers and endchamber. Investigation of the tomb in 1911 (Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger 1912, 329) produced burnt bones, stone pendants, beads and balls, mushroom and poppy-headed antler and bone pins, and a decorated Bronze Age bowl (Ó Riordáin and Waddell 1993, 130). There is a cist (SL040-092----) c. 20m to NE. (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). 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 plans and sections of the monument (surveyed 1993). 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 megalithic cemeteries in the west of Ireland, associated with early farming communities.