What is recorded here

Marblehill holds a ruined portal tomb where two collapsed stones reveal a narrow chamber beneath a massive roof. It stands among rolling farmland near Ballinlough, part of a larger group of megalithic structures that once dotted the demesne. The tomb is not a mysterious gateway but a burial place, its stones shifted by time yet still shaping the hill where people once marked death and memory.

This is one of a group of three tombs (see also GA125-121---- and GA125-128----), which are situated on rolling farmland, c. 1km to the NW of Ballinlough in the NE foothills of the Slieve Aughty Mountains. This tomb comprises a ruined chamber (L c. 2m), with the entrance at SE, formed of two portal-stones and two sidestones above which rests a large roofstone: the E portal-stone and sidestone have collapsed inwards. A displaced stone lies immediately in front of the entrance and two others occupy the N end of the chamber. Traces of a low mound are discernible around the tomb. Marble Hill demesne, within which this monument formerly stood, also contained four other megalithic-type structures: see GA125-120----, GA125-123----, GA125-130---- and GA125-131----. (O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 3 522; de Valera and Ó Nualláin 1972, 21) See linked document with details from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume III. Counties Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath, Laoighis, Offaly, Kildare, Cavan. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1972). Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG Date of upload: 19 August 2019

Portal tomb, dating to the Neolithic period (c. 4000–2500 BCE). It is part of a small group of megalithic tombs associated with early farming communities in the Slieve Aughty Mountains region.

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