What is recorded here

Dermot and Granias Bed was a megalithic tomb on Coolcross Hill in County Donegal, Ireland. The structure contained three parallel slabs set on edge in the ground, marking the sides of a grave whose capstone and other features had already vanished. The name suggests a human story behind the stones, perhaps a lover or kin honoured in local memory, but no clear account survives to confirm who Dermot or Grania were. By 1945 every trace of the tomb had disappeared from the pasture slope.

This feature was named 'Grania's Bed' on the original OS 6-inch map (1834) and 'Dermot and Grania's Bed' on the edition of 1848. All trace of it had been removed by 1945 (Colhoun 1995). It stood in pasture on the S-facing slope of Coolcross Hill. There are two short accounts of this feature. In the OS 1:2,500 Name Book (1900-1901) it is described as 'an antiquity consisting of a few stones forming a rectangle'. Somerville (1929, 155-6) gave the following description: 'This appears to be the remains of a chamber grave. It is greatly ruined, and now consists of three slabs of stone only, set on their edges in the ground, parallel to one another, 5 feet [c. 1.5m] apart, marking the two sides of the grave; each slab being about 6 feet [c. 1.8m] long and 3 feet [c. 0.9m] high above present ground level. The capstone and all other of its original features have disappeared.' This may have been a megalithic tomb, but it cannot reliably be accepted as one on the available evidence. Borlase 1897, 229, Inishowen East no. 5; OS 1:2,500 Name Book, sheet 10 (1900-1901), 37; Somerville 1929, 155-6; Colhoun 1949, 117; Killanin and Duignan 1962, 87; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 98; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 49, no. 185; SMR 1987, 10:19; Colhoun 1995, 23; RMP 1995, 10:19. The above description was published in the 'Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI, County Donegal.' Compiled by: Eamon Cody (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). Date of upload: 22 September 2008

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