Giants Grave in Cabry

This monument is on a small rocky eminence in a tract of boggy ground interspersed with rock outcrops. The site is 300m W of the Mearingland River and 3km from the western shore of Lough Foyle. It commands an extensive outlook toward the S and E across Lough Foyle, but rising ground limits the view inland to the N and W. The monument, considerably ruined, consists of a gallery orientated SW-NE, which is enclosed at both sides and at its NE end by the remains of an outer wall and at the SW by three facade-stones. The overall length of the structure, from the facade to the outer-walling at the E, is 6m. Approximately 2.6m from the facade is a septal-stone, with a smaller stone set between it and the N side of the gallery. These divide the gallery into a portico and main chamber of, it appears, approximately equal length. A single roofstone is in place above the eastern end of the gallery. The relationship of the facade to the front of the portico is now unclear, but a longitudinally set stone 1.2m E of the middle one of the three facade-stones stands midway between the sides of the portico and recalls the divided or 'split-portal' entrance to some wedge tombs. The remains rise above the boggy surface of a mound that is c. 11m long and narrows from 9m wide near its W end to 2.5m at a modern drain/field boundary that truncates its E end. The mound is c. 0.6m high. The portico is 1.8m wide toward the front. Its N side is represented by two orthostats c. 0.5m apart, and one now survives at the S side. The western one of the two on the N side is 0.15m in exposed height, and the eastern is 0.25m in exposed height. The single orthostat at the S is 0.3m in exposed height. A displaced slab, 1m by 0.9m and 0.35m thick, rests against this and partly overlies another slab, which lies in a sloping position with one end embedded in the ground. This measures 0.9m by at least 0.5m by 0.25m thick. It may be a displaced sidestone. The longitudinally set stone between the sides of the portico is 0.5m high. The septal-stone is around the same height as the gallery sides but rises only c. 0.1m above the present level of fill in the portico and 0.5m above the surface of the main chamber. The small stone between its northern end and the gallery side is of similar height. The main chamber is 1.2m wide and was at least 1.6m long. There are two stones on the N side, and one survives on the S side. The outer faces of all three sidestones are concealed by the mound. The western one at the N is 0.45m in exposed height. There is a vertical split in this stone at mid-length (not indicated on plan). The eastern sidestone at the N is 0.3m in exposed height. The sidestone at the S side is 0.5m in exposed height. The surviving roofstone is 1.35m long (E-W), 2.3m in greatest width and 0.35m thick. It rests on the western of the two sidestones at the N, on the W end of the southern sidestone and on a small pad-stone (not on plan) above the eastern end of the southern sidestone. The southern of the three facade-stones is 1.1m high. A displaced slab beside it at the W measures 1.6m by 0.9m by 0.3m thick. The second facade-stone, 1m N of the first, is 0.35m high. The third facade-stone is 0.25m high. It seems from the disposition of these stones that the facade may have been slightly curved in outline. The sides of the outer-walling converge toward the E end of the monument, where there is a straight line of small stones. Five largely concealed orthostats survive at the N side and form a gapped line almost 4.5m long. The tops of the two toward the W are flush with the surface of the mound, and the others rise no more than 0.25m above it. Four outer-wall stones can be recognised at the S. That to the W, 0.7m E of the southern facade-stone, is 1m high. The second is inside the line of the other three and is 0.4m lower than the first. The third orthostat here, its inner face concealed, is 0.3m lower than the second. There is a small, firmly set stone outside the E end of this, but its status is not clear. The fourth outer-wall stone on this side is 1m to the E. Now partly concealed, it rises only 0.1m clear of the ground. Approximately 0.5m S of this is a small set stone, partly buried, c. 0.2m high, and 1m to the W are two similar stones. The status of these three stones is unclear. Four small stones represent the back of the outer-walling. All are partly concealed and c. 0.2m in exposed height. A displaced slab, 0.8m by 0.55m, lies immediately outside the outer-walling here. A brief account of the monument in an OS Revision Name Book of 1848 indicates that it was then in much the same condition as it is now. OS Revision Name Book, sheet 30 (1848), 21; Colhoun 1949,117; Killanin and Duignan 1962, 380; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 381; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 39, no. 92; SMR 1987, 30:4; Ó Nualláin 1989, 136; Colhoun 1995, 76, no. 30/5; RMP 1995, 30:4. 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)