What is recorded here

Indicated is a grass-grown passage tomb on the highest point of Croaghan Hill in County Donegal, Ireland. It stands twenty-one metres across, three metres high, and overlooks a group of tombs 2.6km to the west. The mound is broad, round, and old enough to have swallowed its own shape. A trigonometrical pillar marks its summit, but the tomb may still hold a chamber no one has opened.

This monument stands within a hillfort (Lacy 1983, 115, no. 703) on the highest point (724 feet (c. 220m) OD) of Croaghan Hill. It commands an extensive view in all directions and overlooks the group of tombs in Kilmonaster Middle townland, 2.6km to the W. The monument is a grass-grown mound of broadly round outline. It measures 21m N-S by 17.5m E-W and is 3m high. Its composition, as revealed in a hole, 1.2m deep, high on its western slope and in a smaller one at the E, is a mixture of earth and some stones. An OS trigonometrical pillar stands on its summit. The nature of this monument remains to be determined, but its considerable size, round outline, hilltop situation and proximity to a group of passage tombs suggest that it too may contain such a tomb. Fagan 1845-8, book 10, 27; Ó Nualláin 1968b, 14-15, site L (photograph); Herity 1974, 215, Dg. 12; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 37, no. 86; Cookman 1987, 133; SMR 1987, 70:74; Ó Nualláin 1989, 128; RMP 1995, 70:74. 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). Date of upload: 22 September 2008 This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 14/1987).

A portal dolmen; likely dates to the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. Its location within a hillfort and its commanding position suggest it held ritual or ceremonial significance in the landscape.

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