Dermot and Grania's Bed — Claggan

This monument, 1km SE of the last described, is on a level patch of ground on the lower S-facing slopes of Crocknabuckan Hill, toward the N end of Horn Head peninsula. The mountains of Muckish and Errigal dominate the skyline to the S. The sea is visible at Pollaguill Bay, 1.6km to the SW, along the valley of the Pollaguill Burn. Rock outcrops in the immediate vicinity of the site indicate shallow soil cover, which today provides fair pasture and a little tillage. Fagan (1845-8) recorded that within local memory this monument had lain concealed and unrecognised under soil and heather until rabbit-hunters 'tore up the cairn and disfigured many of the graves beneath'. The monument consists of the remains of a court at the NNW, leading to a ruined gallery now 8.5m long divided into an antechamber and two main chambers. It is likely that there was at least one further main chamber here. Part of the W side of the gallery has been incorporated in a field wall that crosses the court. The remains of a cairn are traceable to the W of this wall. This is visible as a low, poorly defined, grass-grown spread of stones measuring 20m N-S and extending a maximum of 8m westward from the gallery side. There is no identifiable trace of the cairn to the E of the gallery, but two set stones 2m beyond the eastern arm of the court and parallel to it may be kerbstones. The southern one is 0.4m high, and the northern is 0.2m high. A stone next to the last, 0.55m long, 0.3m thick and 0.15m high, is not definitely in situ. The court is c. 4.5m wide and was at least 5m long. Four stones of its eastern arm are in place. A fifth stone at the northern extremity of this arm has fallen. The fallen stone, not hatched on the plan, would be 0.7m high if upright. The courtstone next to it, a substantial block, is 1.05m high. This stone rises 0.15m above the top of the next one to the S. Next to the last is a large round block 1m high. Between this and the gallery entrance is a pillar-like courtstone also 1m high. A scatter of cairn stones hinders identification of the W arm of the court, but one large rounded stone at the wall edge and close to the gallery entrance seems to be a courtstone. It is exposed to a depth of 0.4m in a hole in the cairn. Approximately 1m NW of the last is a stone 0.6m high, which may also be a courtstone. The status of three other set stones, two just S of the last and one to the N, is unclear. From S to N, these measure 0.1m, 0.3m and 0.15m high. The jambs at the entrance to the gallery are transversely set and stand 0.8m apart. That to the W is 0.8m in exposed height. A thin slab at its inner edge is 0.35m high. The eastern jamb is 0.65m high. Approximately 0.5m S of the last and rising 0.1m above it is another jamb. This stone seems intended to divide an antechamber c. 1m long from the rest of the gallery. The front chamber of the gallery extends for 3.2m behind the inner of the eastern pair of entrance jambs and is 2.3m wide. A single orthostat survives on either side of the outer half of this chamber. That at the E rises 0.25m above the top of the adjoining jamb. The orthostat at the W is 1m high. Between this stone and the entrance jamb is a set stone, 1m high, at right angles to the line of the gallery. Its status is uncertain. Toward the back of the E side of the chamber is a leaning slab that would stand c. 1m high if upright. It is uncertain whether it is in situ. A sillstone with a longitudinally placed jamb at its W end marks the division between the first and second chambers. The sillstone is 0.35m in exposed height. The jamb is 0.95m high. The sides of the second chamber are missing, but another jamb and sill arrangement, similar to the last, marks its southern end and shows that it was c. 3m long. The flat-topped sillstone is 0.6m high. The jamb, at its western end, is 1.1m high. This would seem to be a segmenting feature, and so it appears that at least one further chamber existed at this end of the structure. Approximately 1m W of the present end of the gallery and between it and the field wall crossing the site are two set stones, the northern one 0.6m high and the southern 0.2m high. It is not clear whether these form part of the original structure. An orthostat shown at the E side of the second chamber on an earlier plan (de Valera 1960) seems to be part of a stone-faced earthen bank that joins the gallery at this point, rather than a sidestone (Lacy 1983, 324, no. 1863). The western extremity of this bank is shown on the plan published here. Fagan 1845-8, book 1, 12-14; OS Revision Name Book, sheet 15 (1847-9), 18; de Valera 1960, 105, DG. 5 (plan); Killanin and Duignan 1967, 263 ('Cleggan'); Ó Nualláin 1983a, 18, no. 13 (plan); SMR 1987, 15:5; Killanin and Duignan 1989, 170 ('Cleggan'); Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; Cody 1995, 38-40 (plan); RMP 1995, 15:5. 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 See linked document with details from Eamon Cody, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI. County Donegal. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002)