Giants Bed

This monument, enveloped by bushes and small trees, stands on a level patch of ground overlooking Killybegs Harbour, 150m to the W, and is itself overlooked by higher ground closeby to the E. The locality provides poorish pasture broken by occasional rock outcrops. The tomb, which stands in a long cairn, consists of a two-chambered gallery preceded at the ENE by a court. A field wall crosses the NE sector of the cairn and may account for some distortion of its northern perimeter. The cairn is now 25.5m long and 10m wide at the E, from where it broadens to 16.3m at around mid-length and then narrows to c. 11m near its western extremity. A line of three stones, c. 5 .5m beyond the back of the gallery, marks a drop of 0.3m in cairn level. These stones may indicate the original outline of the cairn, but their status remains to be confirmed. This line of stones is 4m long. None of them exceeds 0.4m in exposed height or 0.9m in length. Approximately 1m to the W the top of another stone protrudes c. 0.2m above the surface. At the E end of the cairn is a large prostrate slab, 1.8m by 0.8m. The cairn is now largely grass grown, but its stone make-up is visible in small exposures and in a pit measuring 4m by 3m by 0.5m deep immediately behind the back of the gallery. The entrance jambs of the gallery form the inner ends of the arms of a court, the original design of which is uncertain. It now measures 5m in length and 5.3m in greatest width. The status of two set stones at more or less right angles to the outer end of the northern arm and opposite the gallery entrance is unclear, and they are not hatched on the plan. They may have formed part of a field fence. The northern one is 0.2m high, and the southern is 0.4m high. The entrance jambs are 0.75m apart. The northern one is 0.5m high. A low stone immediately in front of the jamb may have been split from it. The southern jamb, transversely set, is 0.6m high. There are two courtstones, 1.5m apart, beyond this jamb. That next to the jamb is a large stone, 0.4m high, and the other is 0.25m high. There are three courtstones on the northern side. That next to the northern jamb is a large slab, 0.4m high. Beyond this are two smaller slabs both incorporated in the wall crossing the site. That adjoining the large slab is 0.3m high, and the other is 0.7m high. The gallery, c. 5.5m long, is divided into two chambers by a pair of jambs. The front chamber is c. 2m long and 2.4m wide. A single orthostat, 0.15m high, forms its S side. The adjacent entrance jamb rises 0.6m above it. One orthostat, 0.5m high, survives at the inner half of the N side of the chamber. The segmenting jambs are 0.65m apart and set inside the gallery sides. The northern one, transversely set, is 0.8m high, and the southern is 0.7m high. The rear chamber is 3m long and narrows from an estimated 2.2m just inside the segmenting jambs to 1.5m at the back. A single orthostat, 0.7m high, forms the N side of this chamber. A lone orthostat survives at the inner end of the S side. This rises from ground level at its outer end to 0.4m high at its inner end. A backstone set inside the end of this closes the chamber and is 0.35m high. The top of this stone is slightly gabled and may have been more markedly so, as a piece seems to have been detached from its top. A displaced slab, 0.85m by 0.75m by 0.15m thick, lies in this chamber, and another, 1m by 0.9m by 0.35m thick, lies just beyond its NW corner. Thomas Fagan (1845-8) visited this monument in 1847, when it appears to have been in much the same condition as it is now. He was told that stones had been removed from the structure in 1830 for use as building material. Fagan 1845-8, book 19, 23-4 (with schematic ground plan); OS Revision Name Book, sheet 97 (1847-9), 20; de Valera 1960, 110, DG. 28 (plan); Ó Nualláin 1983a, 16-18, no. 8 (with plan); SMR 1987, 97:29; Ó Nualláin 1989, 117; RMP 1995, 97:29. 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). Volume VI. County Donegal. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002)