Dermot and Grania's Bed — Gortnavern

This monument is in a broad flat-bottomed valley 40m W of the Burnside River and 1.8km E of Mulroy Bay. It stands on rough pasture broken by outcropping rock. Rocky hills and ridges restrict the outlook except toward the N. The tomb consists of a well-preserved chamber, c. 1.3m wide and originally 2-3m long. Entry, at the S, is between two tall longitudinally set portal-stones standing 0.7m apart at their outer ends. Single stones form the E and W sides of the chamber, the eastern one now dislodged. A tall gabled stone closes the back of the chamber, which is roofed by a single massive slab. The eastern portal-stone is 2m high. The top of this stone slopes downward slightly toward the backstone.The western one, the top of which slopes quite sharply down toward the backstone, is also 2m high. It rises c. 0.8m above the adjacent sidestone. This sidestone, though apparently well set, leans inward against the portal-stone and backstone. It is 1.1m high. The eastern sidestone is supported in a leaning position across the inner half of the chamber. Its top rests against the inner faces of both the western portal-stone and the western sidestone and against the eastern edge of the backstone. It is 0.35m thick and when in place would have been c. 1.8m long and 1.5m high. The backstone is 1.6m high and rises 0.45m above the top of the western sidestone. The sloping roofstone is 3.5m long, 2m wide at the front, narrowing to 1.6m at the back, and 0.45m thick. Now somewhat displaced, it rests on the portal-stones and on the displaced sidestone. Outside the southern end of the western sidestone is a low stone (not on plan) 0.5m long, 0.15m thick and 0.2m high. It does not appear to have served any structural function. The chamber interior has been deeply dug, as has the ground immediately in front of it. A sketch in an OS Memoir (1834), captioned 'Cromlech near roads in Gortnavern', seems to be an unfinished drawing of this tomb. OS Memoir, Tullyaughnish parish (1834), 44-5 (sketch); Hill 1847, 15; Kinahan 1889, 278-9; Borlase 1897, 231, Kilmacrenan no. 6; Welch 1902, 225; Somerville 1929, 171-5 (plan and photograph); de Valera 1951, 177, fn. 11; Swan 1955, 50-51 (sketch); Killanin and Duignan 1962, 373; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 374; Ó Nualláin 1968a, 295, no. 7; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 30-32, no. 55 (plan); Ó Nualláin 1983b, 94, Donegal no. 7; SMR1987, 27:23; Killanin and Duignan 1989, 247; Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; RMP 1995, 27:23. 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)