Dermot and Grania's Bed — Drumbrick

This monument stands on a flat patch of rough pasture partly overgrown by furze bushes and is adjacent to outcropping rock. A short distance to the W is a sharp fall to the valley of the Lurgybeg River. There is little outlook from the site except to the N, where the Loughsalt Mountain ridge, almost 3km distant, forms the skyline. The monument is ruined and difficult to interpret. Four substantial orthostats seem to represent a gallery. There are other stones at the site, four of them forming a broad curve to the NE of the orthostats. The gallery-like feature, orientated NNE-SSW, is c. 4.5m long and 2m wide. Three stones remain on its western side, and one on the eastern. On the western side the southernmost stone, possibly a jamb, is set transversely to the other two. It is 0.9m high. The second stone is 1m high. The third on this side, 2.15m N of the second, is also 1m high. The single stone to the E stands opposite the gap between the last two and is 0.7m high. Approximately 0.6m outside this is a low stone, 0.65m long, 0.15m thick and 0.2m high, the status of which is uncertain. Approximately 3m E of the last is the westernmost of the curved line of four stones. This leans markedly northward; it is 0.8m long and 0.25m thick and would stand 0.8m high if upright. The second, 4.5m to the E, is 0.55m long, 0.35m thick and 0.4m high. The third, 2.7m NE of the second, is 0.9m long, 0.5m thick and 0.55m high. The fourth and outermost stone of the arc, 3.7m NE of the third, is 0.65m long, 0.4m thick and 0.8m high. There are three other stones to the N and NW of the possible gallery. Two of these are lying flat, and the top of the other, the southernmost, is flush with the ground. The largest of the three measures 1.15m in maximum dimension. Thomas Fagan (1845-8) visited this monument in 1846, and it is clear from his account that the gallery-like feature was then as it is now. He made no reference to the other stones at the site. Although the gallery-like feature seems to be the remains of a megalithic tomb, the status of the arc of stones to the NE is uncertain. Fagan 1845-8, book 9, 1; Kinahan 1889, 283; Borlase 1897, 233, Kilmacrenan no. 25; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 20, no. 22; SMR 1987, 44:7; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; RMP 1995, 44:7. 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)