What is recorded here
Four stones remain where a whole court once stood, two matched jambs still framing the entrance on the east side. They overlook Bundouglas Cove and Ballynakill Lough from a narrow valley, joining a scattered cluster of tombs, stone rows and old field walls near Lough Sheeauns. Whatever lived or died there has gone, but the shape of the chamber is still readable in the way the stones lean toward one another.
On W side of a small valley overlooking Bundouglas Cove to N and Ballynakill Lough to SE. The monument is ruined and the remains comprise four stones. At E are two well-matched jambs which probably mark the entrance to a gallery. The other two stones form part of S side of the gallery. The remains are sufficient to indicate that the monument was a court-tomb (de Valera and Ó Nualláin 1972, 7). This is one of a group of five tombs (GA022-007----, GA022-008----, GA022-063001-, GA022-106----) which, with a stone row (GA022-060----), a stone pair (GA022-009----); pre-bog field walls (GA022-077----) and several houses (GA022-113-----GA022-113007-), are centred on Lough Sheeauns c. 1km to SW. (Gibbons and Higgins 1988b; Molloy and O'Connell 1987)
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993).
Date of upload: 05 August 2010
See linked document with details from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume III. Counties Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath, Laoighis, Offaly, Kildare, Cavan. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1972).
Court tomb, dating to the Neolithic period (c. 4000–2500 BCE). These tombs are significant as some of the earliest ceremonial and burial monuments in Ireland, often associated with communal rituals and early agricultural societies.
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
Places near here
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bridgebridge · 1.1 mi
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ClegganVisitor information · 1.8 mi
Cleggan fishing disaster 28th October 1927Memorial · 1.9 mi
InishbroanIslet · 3.2 mi
Bawn in Doon (ballynahinch By.)Bawn · 3.2 mi
Rinvyle PointHeadland · 3.4 mi