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Giants Grave

Portal tomb

What is recorded here

One portal stone still stands at Giants Grave in County Cavan, leaning beside a chamber barely large enough for a person to crouch inside. The rest has collapsed into a low mound, yet the opening faces southeast as if waiting for light, shadow, or a visitor who remembers that graves are also doors.
Sited 200m E of the site of destroyed court tomb (CV026-005----). A small chamber, 1.6m long and 1m wide, open to the SE, stands towards the S end of a low mound. The more southerly portal-stone survives. Single stones form each side of the chamber which is closed by a backstone set between their ends. A prostrate slab just S of the chamber may be a displaced roofstone. There are two stones at right angles to each other among a group of stones towards the N end of the mound. These seem to be set and could perhaps indicate a subsidiary structure. (de Valera and Ó Nualláin 1972, 128-9, No. 28.) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 December 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).
Portal dolmen; likely Neolithic in date. Its association with a previously recorded court tomb suggests it is part of a broader ceremonial landscape in the region.

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What survives
Recorded monument

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