Court tomb in Mullaghgarve

Situated on a slight W-E spur on a shelf that is close to the bottom of the S-facing slope of Slieve Aniarin. This is described in the folk record (IFC, The Schools’ Collection: vol. 0211, 502-06) as ‘big long limestone flags, standing up on end along the sides of the mound and at both ends. Outside the flags there were piles of stones of various sizes and shapes - some of them would weigh about 2 cwt. Inside the same standing flags there were a number of broken flags which appeared to me to have been a cover that reached from the standing flags on one side to those on the opposite side. Of the standing flags there was one on the western end higher than the others. Outside that flag we got ashes similar to that, what comes from a turf fire.’ The description was provided by Terrence Geoghegan who also recovered unburnt bones, and who relates how the material was used in road-building during 1936. Terrence’s grand-nephew, Mícheál Geoghegan (senior), was able to locate the remains and reported the discovery to the National Monuments Service. Only one stone on the N (dims 0.8m x 0.25m; H 0.4m) and one on the S (dims 1.75m x 0.1m; max. H 0.9m) sides of a chamber (dims 3m plus E-W; 1.6m N-S) survive at the W side of a circular court (dims of base 5.4m N-S; 4m E-W) defined by a grass-covered spread of cairn material (Wth 2.8-5m; int. H 0.2-0.3m; ext. H 0.2-0.7m) that has one upright stone set radially at SE but no opening. A line of four stones (L 3.7m; H 0.1m) aligned E-W on the outer edge of the court at N could be kerbstones of a cairn, some stones of which extend W of the chamber (max. dims 21m E-W; 12m N-S). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 2 September, 2019

Court tomb, dating to the Neolithic period (c. 4000–2500 BCE). Its orientation and construction reflect early communal burial practices in the Irish landscape.