Portal tomb in An Roisín Theas

This monument is 200m from the seashore c. 5km WSW of Dunglow. It stands on rough, rocky pasture 150m E of Maghery Lough. There is an extensive outlook from the site except to the S, where the hilly ground just E of Crohy Head forms the skyline. The tomb consists of an unroofed chamber, entry to which is at the ESE between two tall stones. Beyond these only a single orthostat remains on each side, and the chamber is closed by a roughly gabled backstone. The N side of the structure is incorporated in a field wall. Between 1.5m and 3m S of the chamber is a line of four stones lying on the ground. From the easternmost and largest of these a field wall runs to the S. This stone measures 2.2m by 1.5m and is 0.6m thick. Next to this is a largely concealed block at least 0.9m in maximum dimension. The stone beside this measures 0.75m by 0.55m by 1m thick, and the fourth measures 1.6m by at least 0.4m by 0.8m thick. There is a partly buried stone, at least 0.9m in horizontal dimension and 0.5m thick, just S of the front of the chamber. Another stone, 1.5m in front of the tomb, measures 1.6m by 0.35m and is 0.5m thick. Approximately 3m beyond the back and 4m beyond the S side of the chamber is a drop in ground level. It is not clear whether this represents the edge of a cairn or is simply a natural dip. The two tall stones at the front of the chamber are 0.8m apart at ground level and about equal in height. The southern one leans against and is set slightly in front of the northern. It has a flat inner face and would stand 2m high if upright. The northern one is c. 2m high. It rises c. 0.5m above the sidestone beside it, which is 1.2m high. There is a gap of 1.6m between this stone and the backstone. In this gap and beside the sidestone, a slab, at least 0.8m in maximum dimension, protrudes from the wall crossing the monument. This stone does not appear to have formed part of the structure. On the S side of the chamber is a gap of 1.3m between the tall stone at the front and the other orthostat. The latter stone has a flat inner and sloping outer face and is 1.2m high. The backstone of the chamber is set inside the end of this and is 0.8m high. Two watercolours, one a view of the monument from the N and the other a ground plan, preserved in the Royal Irish Academy (RIA MS 3 C 33) are reproduced above. Dated 1799, they are based on original drawings made some years earlier (see Introduction). These show the monument in a more complete state of preservation than at present. Both sides of the chamber were then intact. Since that time an orthostat has been lost from each side, as has a roofstone shown resting in a more or less horizontal position above the inner half of the chamber. Values recorded on the chamber stones on the 18th-century plan refer to their lengths in feet and inches and are quite accurate in respect of the extant stones. These show that the missing northern orthostat was 6 feet (c. 1.8m) long and the missing southern stone was 3 feet 6 inches (c. 1.05m) long. The overall dimensions of the roofstone were 9 feet 9 inches by 5 feet 6 inches (c. 3m by 1.65m). Another slab, apparently displaced, shown on both drawings to the front of the entrance to the chamber measured 9 feet (c. 2.85m) in maximum dimension. The remains here are those of a portal tomb. The two tall stones at the E appear to be portal-stones at the entrance to a chamber c. 3m long and 1.1m wide. As the southern one stands in front of the other, there is the possibility that the now missing stone on this side, which the 18th-century sketch of the monument shows to have been of similar height, served as the portal-stone. If so, an arrangement similar to that at the western chamber of the portal tomb complex at Malin More (Dg. 91), where a tall stone stands in front of one of the portal-stones, may have obtained here. It is likely that the roofstone shown covering the inner end of the chamber on the sketch would originally have supported a second, high-pitched one resting against the top of the portal-stones. The large slab then in front of the chamber may have served this function. RIA MS 3 C 33, nos. 47 and 48; Ó Nualláin 1968a, 296, no. 3; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 35, no. 70; Ó Nualláin 1983b, 94, Donegal no. 11; SMR 1987, 48:9; Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; RMP 1995, 48:9. 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