Carnaghan Portal Tomb

This monument is on Inch Island in Lough Swilly. It stands on a terrace on the S-facing slope of Inch Top and overlooks the inner reaches of the lough. Fair pasture in the vicinity of the site gives way, closeby to the N, to rougher ground broken by occasional rock outcrops. The tomb now consists of two tall portal-stones at the NE and, 2.5m to the SW, a low backstone. Approximately 0.7m NW of the backstone is a cist covered by two superimposed slabs, and 0.5m E of the cist a slab rests in a horizontal position on four low stones. These features stand in a low grassy mound, subrectangular in outline, measuring 10.4m N-S by 10m E-W. A hedge-grown wall runs along the western edge of the mound. There is a facing of dry-walling along the southern half of the eastern edge of the mound. The wall and facing are relatively modern features. The mound is 0.7m high at the dry-walling and 0.4m high elsewhere. There were three mature trees at the northern edge of the mound and two at the S in 1982 when the tomb was surveyed. The portal-stones are c. 0.6m inside the NE edge of the mound. They are set longitudinally and stand 0.8m apart at their outer ends. These are well-matched stones, both with top edges sloping down toward the backstone. The northern one is 2.9m high, and the southern one is 2.6m high. The base of the latter is partially exposed. The backstone is 1.1m high. Its top is uneven and may be broken. The raised slab just beyond the N side of the tomb measures 1.5m by 1.45m and is 0.25m thick. The four supporting stones are not deeply set in the ground, if they are at all. These are 0.2m to 0.6m in maximum horizontal dimension, and none exceeds 0.2m in height. There is a pad-stone, 0.2m in maximum dimension, between the northernmost support and the covering slab. The nature and origin of this deliberate feature are uncertain. The upper covering slab of the cist measures 2.3m by 2.15m and is 0.3m thick, and the lower one is 2.3m by 1.25m and 0.25m thick. There are two very small pad-stones (not on plan) between the two slabs. The cist measures 1.2m NE-SW by 0.7m NW-SE and is 0.75m deep. The longer sides are each formed by two stones; the NE end is closed by a single stone; and the SW end is open at present. A largely concealed stone is set outside the two stones forming the western side. Just 0.5m beyond the pointed N end of the upper covering slab there is a low upright stone, 0.15m high. This is firmly set in the ground, but its function is unknown. Fagan (1845-8) recorded that 'two crocks of bones' were dug up 'near' the site some years before his visit in 1846. Bronze Age funerary ware consisting of a vase, sherds of a vase urn and a small plain accessory vessel were found in 1880 at this site, but there is some uncertainty about whether they came from the portal tomb or the cist (Waddell 1990; B. Ó Ríordáin and J. Waddell 1993). The surviving portal-stones and backstone are clearly the remains of a portal tomb. The cist and the raised slab are secondary features. This secondary activity and the planting of trees in the modern era account for the present outline and form of the mound. This monument, said to be known locally as the 'King's Grave', is the same as that marked 'Standing Stones' on the various editions of the OS 6-inch maps. They are not, as stated by Killanin and Duignan (1962; 1967), separate sites. Fagan 1845-8, book 11, 26; Somerville 1929, 166-8 (plan and photograph); Swan and Davies 1938, 46-7; S.P. O'Riordan 1947, 42-3 (photograph); Colhoun 1949, 115; Swan 1949, 34; de Valera 1960, 134-5, no. 28; Killanin and Duignan 1962, 114; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 127; Ó Nualláin 1968a, 296, no. 9; ApSimon 1969, 62; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 30, no. 49; Ó Nualláin 1983b, 94, Donegal no. 9; SMR 1987, 37:19; Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; Waddell 1990, 71; B. Ó Ríordáin and J. Waddell 1993, 99; Colhoun 1995, 81; RMP 1995, 37:19. 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