What is recorded here

One enormous portal tomb still stands on the Kernanstown hill while two smaller companions have vanished from sight and memory. Borlase claimed all three in 1897, yet no trace of the others remains for modern eyes to find. The surviving giant suggests human hands shaped the hill before recorded history, but the lost twins warn that even stone can surrender its claims when nobody remembers where to look.

Borlase records that ‘There are three dolmens on this hill. One [the portal tomb] is of enormous proportions, the two others [CW007-012----; CW007-011----] are smaller. . . . Of one of the latter there is a drawing and plan in Miss Stokes’s collection of drawings of dolmens. The remaining one is situated a distance of 50 yards to the N. of the latter.’ (1897, 398). It has not proved possible to locate the drawing referred to by Borlase: it is not among the Stokes’ collection preserved in the Department of Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Dublin. There is no visible trace of either of these features and they cannot, on present evidence, be accepted as the remains of megalithic tombs. (Stokes 1882, 17, Carlow Nos 2, 3; Brindley and Kilfeather 1993, 2, Nos. 7, 8) Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 1 April 2019

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.