Court tomb in Loughnakey

This monument is not shown on any edition of the OS 6-inch map. It stands on a gentle slope in low-lying wettish pasture overlooking Lough Nakey just under 200m to the SW. The tomb consists of the remains of a gallery, 11m in overall length, opening to the SSW. It lacks a court, and its W side has been almost entirely removed. Its E side is incorporated in a field wall. At the SSW two transversely set stones only 0.2m apart seem to function as entrance jambs. The western one is 1.4m in maximum height. Its inner half, i.e. that part toward the eastern jamb, dips sharply to around half that height. The top of the eastern jamb is c. 0.3m below that of the western; it is lm high. Beside the E end of this is a large slab measuring 1.3m by 0.45m by 0.45m high. This is not in situ. A second displaced slab, now partly buried, lies immediately S of the western jamb and measures 1.35m by 0.8m by 0.4m thick. There is a well immediately in front of this stone. Approximately 2.3m N of the eastern jamb is the southernmost of the six orthostats that remain of the E side of the gallery. This stone and the next but one are set transversely to the line of the gallery, and one or both may have served to divide it. If both functioned in this way, it would indicate an unusually short chamber. The southernmost orthostat is 0.75m high. A displaced slab at its W end measures lm by 0.55m. The second orthostat is 0.4m high. The third is 0.6m high. The fourth orthostat, a large slab, is 0.7m high. The fifth, the outer face of which is obscured, is 0.5m high. This and the fourth orthostat support a corbel measuring 1.6m by 1.1m by 0.3m thick. The northernmost sidestone, flat topped, is 0.4m high. The adjacent backstone, its inner face in line with the outer end of this, is 1.1m high. It narrows from the base to a more or less flat top. Kinahan 1889, 281; Borlase 1897, 233, Kilmacrenan no. 20; Killanin and Duignan 1962, 373; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 374; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 24 (plan); SMR 1987, 36:19; Ó Nualláin 1989, 117; RMP 1995, 36:19. 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)