What is recorded here

Dermot & Grainias Bed is a portal tomb in County Leitrim, Ireland, where a low grass-covered cairn hides a narrow chamber built from massive stones. It sits on a rock outcrop beside a ravine, perhaps the most visually stunning megalithic tomb in the county because its simple shape still commands attention. Artists have sketched it since the early nineteenth century, proving that people have long seen more than stone in its quiet outline.

Situated on rock outcrop at the W edge of a N-S ravine (Wth of top c. 100m). A low grass-covered cairn (dims 31.5m N-S; c. 9.5m E-W; max. H 1m) contains a chamber (L 2.4m; Wth 2.2m; H 0.85m) at the S end composed of two portal-stones, two sidestones, a backstone and roofstone. The passage tombs (LE025-093001-; LE025-093002-) and a cairn (LE025-093003-) lie c. 120m to the S. This is perhaps the best known and most visually stunning of the megalithic tombs in County Leitrim, and it has been sketched by artists since the early nineteenth century (Stalley 1991, 150-52). (Borlase 1897, vol. 1, 193-4; de Valera and Ó Nualláin 1972, 73-4) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 September 2008 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).

A Neolithic passage tomb; dates to the 4th–3rd millennium BCE. Its significance lies in its chambered structure and cairn, typical of early funerary monuments in Ireland, reflecting ritual practices and communal organization of the time.

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