Dermot and Granias Bed — Tuaim (tc Leitir Mhic An Bhaird)

This monument lies c. 7.5km to the NW of Glenties. It is on a low E-W-aligned ridge 1.8km N of the estuary of the Gweebarra River and is 250m W of Toome Lough. Between 1m and 3m to the S and immediately beyond the wall shown on the plan there is a sharp drop of c. 1m in ground level. Just N of the site is a narrow valley, beyond which, c. 100m distant, are the lower slopes of Trusklieve Hill (578 feet (c. 176m) OD), the bare rocky face of which overlooks the monument. The area provides rough pasture broken by numerous rock outcrops and boulders. The monument consists of two megalithic chambers, both on the same axis and set 10m apart, toward the ends of a long narrow mound aligned ESE-WNW. That toward the W is a small well-preserved portal tomb. The other, which is largely collapsed, is of uncertain design, but it has been suggested that it is a second portal tomb (Ó Nualláin 1983b, 94). The mound is covered by a heavy growth of bracken and briars. Its western extremity cannot reliably be traced, nor can it be identified in the very heavy growth beyond the field wall that marks its E end. It is now 36m long and 10.5m wide. Toward the W it reaches 1m in height, but generally it does not exceed 0.5m. A stone wall, now quite collapsed, has been built along the top of the cairn to the N of the western chamber. The well-preserved western chamber faces into the body of the cairn and stands c. 1 1m from its western end. It is 2.2m long and 1.2m wide internally. At the E, two tall portal-stones stand at either side of a high doorstone, and behind these are two opposed sidestones and a backstone. A corbel is in place above the northern sidestone, and there is another on the S side, which has slipped outward. A roofstone resting on the northern corbel, the backstone and the southern sidestone covers that part of the chamber behind the portal-stones. There is a small stone, 0.45m by 0.15m by 0.15m thick, wedged between it and the southern sidestone at the outer end of the latter. The roofstone now slopes down from N to S but would have rested in a horizontal position when the southern corbel was in place. It is expected that it would have supported a second, larger roofstone, the front of which would have rested on the tall portal-stones. The two portal-stones, set longitudinally, are 0.85m apart. The southern one is 1.85m high. Its top surface slopes down to the outside. The northern portal-stone is 2m high. The doorstone, 1.2m high, leans outward slightly. It fully occupies the space between the portal-stones and is just over half their height. The sidestones, well matched and both flat topped, are set back slightly from the ends of the portal-stones. Both are free standing, although each leans inward slightly and the southern one touches the edge of the backstone. The northern one is 0.55m high, and the southern one is 0.6m high. The backstone, which leans inward slightly, is gabled in outline and 0.8m high. There is a gap of 0.15m between it and the northern sidestone. The northern corbel measures 2.2m by 1.35m by 0.4m thick, and the slipped corbel at the S measures 1.55m by 0.9m by 0.3m thick. The roofstone measures 2.55m in overall length and 1.6m in maximum width and is up to 0.5m thick. Its heavier end is to the front of the chamber. To the W of the chamber three stones, all firmly set, protrude from the surface of the mound, and there is another in front of the northern portal-stone. The tallest is 0.3m high. These may be cairn stones. Only two stones of the structure toward the E end of the mound are clearly in position. One of these, a markedly gable-shaped stone, is at the E and at right angles to the long axis of the mound. It leans eastward slightly and is 1.2m high. The second orthostat here is 0.7m to the SW of this and almost at right angles to it. This is a low stone that leans slightly to the N. It is 0.4m high. Opposite this is a stone that leans very markedly southward. It seems to have stood at right angles to the N end of the gabled stone. It is 1.9m long and 0.2m thick and would stand c. 1m high if upright. This and the upright stone opposite support, in an almost horizontal position, a slab measuring 1.7m by 1.6m by 0.25m thick. This may be a roofstone. Immediately W of the southern orthostat is a long slab on edge. It is 3.05m long, 0.55m thick and 1 .1m high. It is not set in the ground and may be a fallen stone. Immediately N of the eastern half of this is a displaced slab measuring 1.45m by 0.35m by 0.55m. Another apparently displaced slab leans against the W end of the long slab. It measures 1.6m by 0.2m and is 0.9m high. Ó Nualláin (1983b) has interpreted the gabled stone at the E as a likely backstone, the opposed stones at right angles to either end of it as sidestones, and the long stone next to the southern orthostat as a possible fallen portal-stone. If this is correct, the remains would be another example of the placement of two portal tomb chambers in a single cairn. OS Revision Name Book, sheet 65 (1848-51), 14; de Valera 1960, 135, no. 29; Ó Nualláin 1968a, 296-7, no. 11; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 36, no. 74; Ó Nualláin 1983b, 94, Donegal no. 13; SMR 1987, 65:5; Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; RMP 1995, 65:5. 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)