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Giants Grave

Wedge tomb

What is recorded here

Half-buried in the rolling ground of County Leitrim, Giants Grave is a narrow wedge chamber only three and a half metres long, with one roofstone and a doorway facing the southwest. The name suggests a giant, but the dimensions fit an ordinary person, leaving the true occupant and the meaning of the grave to imagination.
In an undulating landscape with rock outcrop. A single chamber (dims. c. 3.5m NE-SW; 1m NW-SE) opening to SW with a portal-stone on the N side. There are traces of double walling on the S side, and there is a single roofstone. (Lockwood 1901, 84; de Valera and Ó Nualláin 1972, 43-4; Holly 1976, 126-7) 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).
Portal dolmen; likely Neolithic in date. Its orientation and construction techniques are typical of megalithic tombs in the British Isles, reflecting early communal burial practices.

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Recorded monument

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