Glentogher Wedge Tomb / Carrowmore

This monument, c. 550m E of the last, is not shown on any edition of the OS 6-inch map. It stands on a terrace on a boggy, W-facing hillside overlooking the southern end of the valley of the Glentogher River. Immediately to the E the ground rises to an extensive plateau overlooked by Glencar Hill. The monument, deeply embedded in bog, consists of a gallery, 2.3m long, divided by a septal-stone into a portico, at the SSW, and a roofed main chamber. The gallery narrows and lowers toward the NNE. A low mound, oval in outline and measuring 7.8m SSW-NNE by 5.6m encloses the structure. This is 0.5m high at the SSW but decreases in height at the NNE of the monument, where its outline is rather uncertain. Beyond the W side of the gallery the edge of the mound merges with a low natural slope. Each of the portico sides is represented by a single orthostat, set with their outer ends 1.45m apart. It appears that these mark the outer end of the gallery, but the absence of a frontal feature leaves some uncertainty. Both are exposed to a height of 0.6m and rise c. 0.5m above the top of the septal-stone. The outer face of the septal-stone is concealed, and its inner face is exposed to a height of 0.25m above the muddy floor of the main chamber. It is 1.15m long and 0.15m thick and now leans inward. The main chamber is 1.4m long at its W side and 1.7m at the E owing to the skewed setting of the backstone. It is l.1m wide just inside the septal-stone and narrows to 0.7m at the opposite end. Three stones form its eastern side. That to the S, largely concealed, is 0.1m thick and at least 0.3m long, and its top is 0.35m lower than the adjoining portico sidestone. The second sidestone is set inside the end of the first. It rises 0.15m above the top of the septal-stone. The innermost sidestone here is 0.05m lower than its neighbour. The W side of the chamber consists of two orthostats. That next to the septal-stone is 0.3m in exposed height. The second sidestone is set inside the line of the first, and there is a small packing-stone, measuring 0.2m or more, between them. This sidestone is the same height as the other. The backstone, inset between the sides, rises 0.3m above the floor of the chamber. The front half of the main chamber is covered by a roofstone 1.1m long, 1.45m wide and 0.2m thick. It rests on the middle one of the three stones on the E side of the chamber, on the outer of the two at the W side, and on the outer end of a second roofstone, which covers the inner half of the chamber. There is a gap varying from 0.12m to 0.25m between the underside of the outer roofstone and the top of the septal-stone. A growth of peat covers much of the top of this roofstone and the entire top of the inner roofstone. The latter is at least 0.7m long, at least 1m wide and at least 0.15m thick. It rests on the top of the inner sidestone on the W side of the chamber and on the sloping inner end of the middle sidestone on the E side of the chamber. There is a small space between its underside and the tops of both the inner sidestone at the E and the backstone. Colhoun 1949, 112 (plan a), 116; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 41, no. 97; SMR 1987, 30:3; Ó Nualláin 1989, 136; Colhoun 1995, 78 (plan); RMP 1995, 30:3. 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)