What is recorded here

Drewstown Great once held a massive Megalithic tomb where a four-metre roofstone rested on broken supports, marking the area as a burial place long before the house appeared. Farmers removed the ancient stones during land reclamation in 1964, erasing the physical chamber but leaving behind the memory of dead people sealed beneath level Meath soil. The tomb vanished not through disaster but through the ordinary hunger for usable earth, proving that even monumental death can be swallowed by living needs.

Situated on a fairly level landscape and on the demesne of Drewstown House, which is c. 850m to the SW. A large stone (max. dims c. 3.25m x c. 1.42m; T c. 0.6m) was described (Adams 1958, 55-6) as lying separate from and probably to the NW of a large roofstone (dims c. 3.95m x c. 2.64m; T 0.75m) that was supported on two or three stones, one of which was broken. The tomb had been briefly described but not drawn by the antiquarian Austin Cooper c. 1790 (Price 1942, 125), and it was removed in land reclamation c. 1964. Herity (1974, 244) lists it amongst the passage tombs of Co. Meath. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 27 February 2019

Megalithic tomb, likely portal dolmen, dating to the Neolithic or early Bronze Age. Its association with a large standing stone suggests ritual or funerary significance, though specific details remain unclear.

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