What is recorded here

Five stones still mark a ruined chamber beside the River Lee, perhaps a wedge tomb where people placed the dead against the living rock. The gallery stretches little more than two metres, narrow enough for one body to lie across or for hands to pull a stone into alignment. Whatever Gallaun was, it was built with purpose in a busy valley, not dropped there by chance.

In River Lee valley at foot of ridge of outcropping rock some 4.5m from rock-face. Very ruined gallery (L over 2.2m; Wth 1.3m at W end), aligned ENE-WSW, represented by three stones to N and two at S sides. Tall stone (H1.45m) at W end of N side. Some doubt about exact nature of monument, but interpretation as wedge-tomb would not be inconsistent with present evidence. (O Nualláin 1989, 135) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

Neolithic gallery grave, dating to approximately 3500–2500 BCE. Its location in the River Lee valley suggests it may have been part of a broader ritual landscape associated with early farming communities in the region.

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