Carrownaganonagh Wedge Tomb

This monument is not shown on any edition of the OS 6-inch map. It stands on a gentle fall of ground 100m SE of a tributary of the Bunlin River, which enters the sea at the inner end of Mulroy Bay, 3.2km to the NE. The land in the immediate vicinity of the monument provides fair pasture, but in the surrounding area there are considerable occurrences of outcropping rock and patches of light peat cover. To the NW the hill range extending northward from Lough Salt Mountain, 2.5km away, restricts the outlook. The monument, in a fair state of preservation, consists of a WSW-facing gallery, 4m long, divided by a high septal-stone into a partly roofed portico, the N side of which survives, and a roofed main chamber. A single outer-wall stone survives at the N. There is a considerable cairn at the site, which survives beyond both sides of the tomb and covers much of the roof. At the S and along the top of the gallery it is largely grass grown. At the N, where it was disturbed at the date of survey, it was seen to be composed of sizeable stones under a layer of earth c. 0.3m thick. The cairn measures 4.2m N-S by 4.2m E-W and is 1.5m high. The portico, c. 1.3m long, is almost fully obscured by cairn material, but the outer face of the single slab that forms its N side is visible. This is 0.7m high. A roofstone, partly hidden by cairn material, overlies the inner part of the portico. Its eastern end rests on the septal-stone, and its western end dips into the cairn material in the portico. It measures 1.8m N-S by at least 0.7m E-W and is 0.25m thick. A prostrate slab, partly hidden, at the front of the portico is over 0.7m long, 0.5m wide and 0.25m thick. The septal-stone, at least 0.5m high, is partly obscured by cairn material. However, it is clear that it is contained within the gallery sides and that it fully blocks access from the portico to the rest of the gallery. The main chamber, 2.5m long, lacks a backstone. It is 1.15m wide just inside the septal-stone and narrows to 0.7m at its eastern end. Two stones form each side. The western of the two stones on the N side, the outer end of which is partly hidden by the cairn, is 0.4m high. The eastern stone is 0.5m high. The outer faces of the two sidestones at the S are obscured. The western one is 0.4m high, and the eastern one is 0.45m high. The two sidestones at the S and the eastern one at the N support a roofstone that covers the chamber. There is a pad-stone (not shown on plan) between the roofstone and the western end of the supporting sidestone at the N. The roofstone, the southern side of which is hidden by the cairn, is 2.5m long (E-W), c. 1.5m wide and 0.2m thick. At right angles to the outer face of the stone forming the N side of the portico is a set stone, 0.35m high. Its top is 0.35m below that of the portico side, and it seems to have functioned as a buttress. Approximately 0.3m outside the western sidestone on the N side of the main chamber is an outer-wall stone, its base hidden by cairn stones. This stone leans outward, is 0.9m long and 0.2m thick and would stand at least 0.7m high if upright. At either side of this is a prostrate slab, both of which are partly concealed. These may originally have formed part of the outer-walling. The western one measures at least 0.9m in maximum dimension, and the eastern, partly overlain by the outer-wall stone already referred to, measures 1.75m by at least 0.8m. Ó Nualláin 1983a, 41, no. 98; SMR 1987, 36:16; Ó Nualláin 1989, 136; RMP 1995, 36:16. 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)