Portal tomb in Carrickmagrath

This monument, not shown on any edition of the OS 6-inch map, first came to notice in 1988. It stands in a mature forest on a little ledge of a rocky SE-facing slope among the hills forming the S side of the basin of the River Finn, c. 4km SW of Ballybofey. The monument consists of a roofed chamber facing NE, which stands toward one end of a long cairn. The chamber is 1.7m long and 1m wide internally and stands 2.5m from the NE end of the cairn, which is set along the contour of the slope. The stone-built cairn is almost wholly covered by moss, and a layer of peat has formed along its western edge. Some fallen trees and undergrowth of bushes and rough grass obscure its perimeter in places, but its essential shape is clear. It is subrectangular in outline, measures 17m NE-SW by 8m NW-SE and reaches c. 0.7m high. Some stones have rolled downslope from its eastern and southern edges. Two longitudinally set portal-stones either side of a sillstone mark the front of the chamber. A single orthostat forms each side of the chamber, and another closes its SW end. The top of the eastern sidestone dips toward the front, and the space thus left between it and the roofstone is blocked by a corbel laid against the outer face of the sidestone. A slab, now broken in two, rests against the end of the backstone. Its original function is not clear. The roofstone has been dislodged slightly and now rests in a sloping position across the chamber. At the N it has slipped down the inner face of the western portal-stone, and its opposite side is tilted upward. It rests on the inner end of the eastern portal-stone, on both sidestones and on the corbel above the eastern sidestone. The portal-stones are 0.45m apart at their outer ends but diverge toward the S, where the gap between them is 0.7m. The western portal-stone is 0.7m high. Its top, which may be broken, is 0.3m below that of the eastern portal-stone, which is 1.05m high. The thin intervening sillstone is 0.5m long, 0.1m thick and 0.35m high. Both sidestones are in line with their respective portal-stones and lean inward against the backstone. The eastern sidestone increases in height from only c. 0.1m at its outer end to 0.4m at its inner, or southern, end. The top of the western sidestone is hidden by a layer of peat, but it appears to be c. 0.4m high. There is a gap of 0.3m between this and the inward-leaning backstone, which is 0.7m high. The corbel on the eastern sidestone measures 1m by 0.95m and is up to 0.3m thick. When intact the broken slab leaning against the end of the backstone measured 1.3m by 1m by 0.2m thick. The position of the break in this stone is indicated by a pecked line on the plan. The roofstone, its western edge obscured by the layer of peat mentioned above, is 1.9m long, 1.6m wide and up to 0.6m thick at the front. Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; Verling 1990, 126; RMP 1995, 77:21. 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)