Giants Beds Court Tomb — Liafin

The monument is on the W side of the Inishowen peninsula, c. 1km from the shore of Lough Swilly on a low flat-topped ridge, and is aligned NE-SW. The land in the vicinity, poorly drained and bog grown, provides rough grazing. There are good views from the site, particularly to the SW across Lough Swilly, though limited to the NE by Aghaweel Hill c. 1.2km away and to the E by the less imposing Liafin Hill. The monument consists of, at the NE, the remains of a gallery c. 6m long, now divided into two chambers. Approximately 26m to the SW there is a ruined subsidiary chamber, and a further 12m to the SW is another, both opening to the SE. These three elements seem to have stood in a long narrow mound that is now only intermittently traceable in the uneven, boggy surface. Reliable survey of its outline is not possible, but it seems to have been c. 15m broad. There appears to have been considerable clearance of cairn material from the site since the middle of the 19th century, when, it is reported, there was 'a vast quantity of loose stones of various dimensions lying in a confused mass' between the main gallery and the south-western subsidiary chambers (OS Revision Name Book, 1846-7). Today there is only a light scatter of loose stones in this area. The main gallery opens to the NE. The front chamber is represented by a single orthostat at its southern side. This is a split stone set with its flat face to the interior. It is 0.8m high. It does not seem to be deeply set in the ground and leans inward against a segmenting jamb at its inner end. This longitudinally set jamb is the same height as the sidestone. At the inner face of this jamb is an upright stone, 0.2m high. The status of this stone is uncertain. Opposite the jamb is an orthostat lm in exposed height. This too may be a jamb. A prostrate stone measuring 1.lm by 0.7m lies 2.6m to the NE of this. A thorn bush grows in the rear chamber, the southern side of which is formed by two stones. The outer stone, set more or less in line with the segmenting jamb, is 0.6m in exposed height. Its top is 0.4m below that of the jamb. The inner sidestone here, set outside the line of the outer, does not seem to be deeply set in the ground. It has a flat inner face and is 0.8m high. A tall gabled orthostat, 1.7m high, forms the back of the gallery. This chamber was c. 3m long and was probably c. 1.5m wide. The gallery was rather better preserved in 1846-7 (OS Revision Name Book), when five 'flag stones' were present on the S side and four on the N. It was then 26 feet (c. 8m) long, which suggests that the gallery may have consisted of more than the two chambers now known. Only two stones of the eastern subsidiary chamber survive. One of these, a sidestone at the SW, leans markedly to the E. If upright, it would stand 1m high. There is a gable-shaped backstone at right angles to the N end of this. It leans southward and partly overlies but does not touch the sidestone. This, if upright, would stand 0.7m high. The western subsidiary chamber is rather better preserved. It is c. 2m long and almost 1m wide. Two sidestones and a backstone survive. The backstone, low and flat topped, is 0.25m high. The sidestone to the E leans against the backstone and rises 0.35m above it. The sidestone to the W is set in front of the backstone. Its inner end is around the same height as the backstone, from where it rises toward the front of the chamber, where it is 0.55m high. According to local information, this chamber was damaged at around the beginning of the 20th century. Approximately 3.5m to the W of the chamber is a leaning stone 0.6m long, c. 0.3m thick and, if upright, lm high. It is unclear whether it is a structural stone. Almost lm to the W is a displaced stone measuring 0.7m in maximum dimension. OS Revision Name Book, sheet 19 (1846-7), 30-31; de Valera 1960, 104, no. 3 (plan); Ó Nualláin 1983a, 24, no. 32; SMR 1987, 19:13 and 19:14; Ó Nualláin 1989, 117; Colhoun 1995, 57, no. 19/2; RMP 1995, 19:13 and 19:14. 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)