Giants Grave (Site of) — Dooish

There is now no visible trace of this monument, to which the names 'Cashelnagat Fort' and 'Giant's Grave' were given on the 1847-9 edition of the OS 6-inch map. On this map the 'Giant's Grave' is depicted as a small rectangular feature within 'Cashelnagat Fort'. The latter is portrayed as a round embanked enclosure c. 30m in diameter. By 1904, the date of the OS 1:2,500 survey of the area, the 'Giant's Grave' was apparently no longer extant. The spot where it had stood is indicated by the appropriate symbol on the map and the words 'Giant's Grave (Site of)'. 'Cashelnagat Fort', depicted on this map as an embanked enclosure, is described in the accompanying OS 1:2,500 Name Book as 'an ancient mound of earth'. It has since been removed. In 1984 there were some large stones lying in the corner of a field that now occupies the site of the enclosure, but it is not known whether these ever formed part of an ancient structure. The monument stood on good farmland S of and overlooking the River Finn. There are two accounts of this monument. One is by Thomas Fagan (1845-8), who visited it in 1846, and the other, unsigned, is contained in an OS Revision Name Book (1847-9). Two rudimentary drawings of the 'Giant's Grave' by Fagan are reproduced below. He described it thus: in the townland of Dooish…stands the ruins of a pagan sepulture now called Cashelnagath i.e. the Cat Fort but originally called Dermot and Grania's Bed. It occupied 30 by 20 yards [c. 27.45m by c. 18.3m] and about 7 feet [c. 2.15m] height but now much disfigured and seat of a small grove of forest trees. It consisted of a number of stone coffins or graves chiefly lying E and W and enclosed at sides and ends by great flags, and all (except a range on its top) immured in a pile or carn of stones. The opposite sketch convey some idea of its present shape and order. The figure in front or east end [captioned 'Figure 1' by Fagan on his sketch] represent a vault or altar consisting in a great flag supported on four pillars, the two front ones of which, together with the flag or altar over them is shown by sketch. The rear pillars could not appear in this sketch but in size and shape nearly resemble those given by sketch. The vault is 4 feet [c. 1.2m] high, 2 to 21/2 feet [c. 0.6-0.75m] wide and 61/2 feet (c. 2m) long front to rear. The four pillars enclosing on either side average four and a half feet [c. 1.35m] high…The altar or flag over them is 41/2 feet [c. 1.4m] long, 31/2 feet [c. 1.05m] broad and 1 foot [c. 0.3m] thick in the extremes. This erection…has been recently discovered by removal of a portion of the eastern end of the cairn in which it was immured. The figure in the background [captioned 'Figure 2' by Fagan on his sketch] or western part of the cairn represent an enclosed range of graves on the top of the carn lying E and W through its centre…enclosed on either side by great flags set end and edgeways in the ground and standing 2 to 41/2 feet [c. 0.6-1.4m] above the latter, some of great length and in some cases three rows of them laid up together on either side the grave…A portion of the range of graves is still traceable and retaining shape and constitute the western end of the original range and measure 141/2 feet [c. 4.4m] long, 3 to 61/2 feet [c. 0.9-2m] wide and enclosed by flags of the aforesaid size and order as will be seen by sketch as a few of the upright flags are there represented.' The slightly later account in the OS Revision Name Book (1847-9) reads as follows: 'In this fort is the remains of a Giant's Grave so called by the peasantry and is composed of two rows of flags and is about 26 feet [c. 7.9m] long and 5 feet [c. 1.5m] wide. At the east end of this grave is a sort of doorway or entrance formed by two upright stones and another placed horizontal on top. There appears to have been an underground passage here as part of the foundation was lately dug up.' Information gathered locally in 1981 suggested that the monument was interfered with and perhaps removed in the early years of the 20th century. During this work a 'hatchet top' or something similar was allegedly found (ASCD archive). In the absence of any visible remains the available accounts, especially in the light of the depiction of the site as a ringfort-type enclosure on OS 6-inch maps, are open to the interpretation that this monument was a ringfort with souterrain (Ó Nualláin 1983a). Nevertheless, it is possible that this was a megalithic tomb consisting of a cairn in which was a long gallery with a lintelled entrance at the E. The matter remains unresolved. Fagan 1845-8, book 13, 1-2 (two drawings); OS Revision Name Book, sheet 77 (1847-9), 25; OS 1:2,500 Name Book, sheet 77 (1904), 17-18; ASCD archive; Lacy 1983, 206, no. 1267; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 48, no. 160; SMR 1987, 77:7; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; RMP 1995, 77:7. 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