What is recorded here

Killanin and Duignan called the Ballynarry site a ruinous chamber tomb, yet the so-called chamber is only a fortuitous cavity inside a long oval pile of stones. The heap stretches thirty metres across an overgrown hillslope above Lough Swilly, pretending to be a burial chamber while refusing to explain itself. Human hands may have moved those stones, but chance shaped the dark space they left behind.

Killanin and Duignan (1962; 1967), following Somerville (1929), claimed that there is a 'ruinous prehistoric chamber tomb' on Crockacashel in this townland. There is here, on the overgrown hillslope overlooking the E shore of Lough Swilly, a long and narrow oval pile of large stones c. 30m long and 12m wide. In the middle of this heap there is a cavity under a large block resting unevenly on two opposed blocks. Whatever the origin of this great heap of stones, the so-called chamber appears to be a fortuitous occurrence. Somerville 1929, 160-62 (plan, photograph); Anon. 1951, 350; Killanin and Duignan 1962, 113; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 127. The above description was published in the 'Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI, County Donegal.' Compiled by: Eamon Cody (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). Date of upload: 22 September 2008

Megalithic tomb, likely dating to the Neolithic period. Its significance lies in its potential contribution to understanding early prehistoric funerary practices in the region.

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