Megalithic tomb in Ballinvally (leyny By., Carrownaskeagh Ed)

At the foot of a NW-facing slope and close to a stream in damp pasture. The structure is damaged and difficult to interpret. The main feature is an uphill- and E-facing chamber (L 4m; Wth c. 2m) with its back to the stream. A large stone (H c. 1.5m) forms each side and it is closed by an inset backstone (L 1.8m; min. T 0.3m; H 1.4m), the jagged top of which indicates it has been broken. In front of the northern sidestone there is the stump of another orthostat (L 1.6m; min. H 1.7m) possibly a broken portal-stone. Part of its detached upper portion lies at the front of the chamber. Some low stones just N of the stump of this orthostat are part of an old field fence. A large flat slab (4m x 3m; T 0.4m), a displaced roofstone, leans against the outer face of the southern sidestone. Both sidestones lean to the S and both are split. There is considerable grass-grown fill in the chamber. The tomb must remain unclassified but its location, facing uphill away from a stream, the use of a single large stone for each side of the chamber, and the presence of a great roofstone would suggest it may be a ruined portal-tomb. Five metres W of the chamber there is a large prostrate slab (2.45m x 2.5m; T 0.4m), its W end raised clear of the ground where it rests on a set stone (L 1.1m; H 0.55m; T 0.15m). There are other partly buried slabs here. The indications are that this may have been some form of chamber. Some 7m to the N there is another large prostrate slab (4m x 2.4m; max. T 0.4m). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005). Date of upload: 18 January 2008

Megalithic tomb, likely a portal dolmen dating to the Neolithic period. Its position near a stream and on a slope suggests ritual or funerary significance typical of early farming communities in the region.