Dermot and Granias Bed — An Dún Mór (tc Na Croisbhealaí)

This feature was first marked on the 1847-9 edition of the OS 6-inch map. It stood 1.3km ESE of the site of the destroyed court tomb in Ballintemple (Dg. 2), on gently sloping pasture overlooking the valley of the Ray River. To the S the mountains stretching from Errigal to Muckish form the skyline. An OS 1:2,500 Name Book records that there were 'several large stones' at the site in 1905. According to local information, four stones remained here until c. 1930, when they were removed. One stone is said to have been buried, and the others were apparently used for wall-building. Two accounts of the monument are contained in OS documents. The first is by Thomas Fagan (1845-8), who saw it in 1845. He described it as 'the ruins of an ancient sepulture called Dermot and Grania's Bed…which seem to have originally occupied 30 by 15 feet [c. 9.15m by 4.6m] but at present consist in a few of the large stones originally enclosing the graves'. To the N was a large slab 51/2 feet (c. 1.7m) long, 5 feet (c. 1.5m) broad and 11/2 feet (c. 0.45m) thick, with its S end raised 2 feet (c. 0.6m) above ground on two 'upright pillars'. Fagan thought that this large slab had originally rested clear of the ground on the two supporting stones. Approximately 121/2 feet (c. 3.8m) to the S a large stone 91/2 feet (c. 2.9m) long, 4 feet (c. 1.2m) broad and of similar thickness lay flat on the ground at right angles to the long axis of the monument. It appeared to Fagan to have been intended to divide the structure into 'two apartments'. The second account, in an OS Revision Name Book (1847-9), reads as follows: 'This monument is about 18 feet [c. 5.5m] long and 8 feet [c. 2.4m] broad. It is placed N and S and on the N end is a large flag 5 feet [c. 1.5m] long and 4 feet [c. 1.2m] broad. It stands on its edge in a sloping position toward the south and supported by two smaller stones. In the S end is another large stone shaped like a wedge with the narrow part uppermost and extends across the whole breadth of the monument. There are four other smaller stones at the S end.' The accounts referred to describe what may have been a considerably ruined megalithic tomb. Fagan 1845-8, book 3, 14; OS Revision Name Book, sheet 25 (1847-9), 39; OS 1:2,500 Name Book, sheet 25 (1905), 45; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 45, no. 125; SMR 1987, 25:44; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; RMP 1995, 25:44. 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