What is recorded here

Donegal's highest peak holds a broad stone disc that men climbed only to measure the world's edge. Surveyors broke the quiet chamber Kinahan saw in 1889, yet the cairn still stands as a flat-topped mirror for the sky. It is not a monument to gods but a tool for knowing distance, which makes its endurance on the mountain both fitting and faintly sad.

A circular cairn of loose stones c. 17m in diameter. It is flat topped, from 1.5m to 2m in height. It was used as a trigonometrical station which may account for its disturbed state but there is no sign of the 'Kistvaen' noted by Kinahan (1889, 280). It is situated on the summit of Meskanmeave Hill in mountainous terrain but with extensive views. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

A Neolithic cairn; its construction dates to the early to middle Neolithic period (c. 4000–3000 BCE). It represents a type of funerary monument common in Atlantic Europe, though its function may have been modified in later periods.

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