What is recorded here

Munterdoneys Grave is a vanished megalithic chamber in County Donegal, Ireland, where two large slabs stood or lay together before human hands broke the site open. The loss is not abstract: a proprietor ordered the digging, bones came to light, and the strange architecture disappeared from the land. What remains is a name preserved in a map and a warning that curiosity can destroy the very thing it wants to know.

This feature was first shown on the 1847-9 edition of the OS 6-inch map. There are no visible remains of it now. In an account in an OS Revision Name Book (1847-9) it is described as a 'grave', only two stones of which then survived. One was an upright slab c. 12 feet (c. 3.65m) long and 11/2 feet (c. 0.45m) high. The other, of similar dimensions, lay over the grave. It is also recorded that the site had been dug at the behest of the proprietor, Mr Hart, and that some human bones were found. There may have been a megalithic tomb here, but more reliable evidence would be required to establish that such was the case. OS Revision Name Book, sheet 25 (1847-9), 23; Borlase 1897, 230-31, Kilmacrenan no. 2: Ó Nualláin 1983a, 47, no. 157; SMR 1987, 25:45; RMP 1995, 25:45. 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

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.