Turas Cholmcille Station 15 Cromlech

The monument, just W of Glencolumbkille church and graveyard, stands on a slight ridge in low-lying, level pasture 600m E of the inner end of Glen Bay and c. 150m N of the Murlin River. The court tomb at Farranmacbride (Dg. 56) is visible 0.5km to the N. The monument is considerably ruined. Three structural stones, two to the N and one to the S, can reliably be identified. These stand at opposite ends of a long, grass-grown mound of irregular outline measuring 12m NE-SW by 8m NW-SE by 1.75m high. The status of some other set stones is less certain, and these, along with prostrate stones, are not hatched on the plan. A stone-built field wall runs N-S across the top of the mound. The monument has long been appropriated by Christian ritual as one of the stations in the turas, or pattern, associated with St Colmcille (Price 1941, 73). A facing of dry-wall construction, 1.5m long, set into the western side of the mound near its northern end may be the remains of a 'temporary altar where mass is said to have been celebrated in modern times…[and where] some portion of the station ceremonies is usually observed' (Fagan 1845-8). Fagan also claimed that there were further 'sepulchral' remains c. 20 yards (c. 18m) W of the surviving structure and that here too a 'temporary altar' had been constructed. Of these features there is now no trace. The southern orthostat at the site is 2m in from the SW end of the mound. Aligned roughly NW-SE, it is gabled in outline and 0.9m high. The other two structural stones stand at an angle to each other at the eastern edge of the N end of the mound. The southern one lies roughly E-W and is 0.5m high. The northern stone lies roughly N-S and is 0.8m high. There are three stones close to the western edge of the mound. The southernmost, a set stone, is 0.5m NW of the southern orthostat. It measures 1.1m by 0.6m by 0.7m in exposed height at its western face. The second, 0.4m to the N, lies against the edge of the mound and measures 0.95m by 0.4m by 0.8m high. The third, 2.5m N of the second, is a set stone at right angles to the line of the other two and measures 1.05m by 0.55m by 1.2m high at its western face. A displaced slab measuring 2.15m by 1.4m lies prostrate at the N end of the mound. Approximately 1.5m to the S is another displaced slab, 1.6m by 1.35m by 0.4m thick. This, overlain by the crossing field wall, rests on the pointed top of a stone, at least 0.5m in maximum dimension, that protrudes 0.4m above the surface of the mound. Approximately 1m E of the last a set stone, 0.5m by 0.3m, rises 0.25m above the mound surface. Approximately 1.5m S of this a slab, 1.2m in maximum dimension, is visible at the E face of the crossing-wall, and 2.5m to the S a large displaced block of stone, 0.9m in maximum dimension, has been incorporated in the wall. A possible interpretation of the remains is that the gabled orthostat at the S is the backstone and the two orthostats to the N are a sidestone and a segmenting jamb of a NE-facing court tomb gallery c. 8.5m or more in length. Confirmation of this interpretation would require further investigation, and pending this the monument must remain unclassified. Fagan 1845-8, book 21, 7-8; OS 1:2,500 Name Book, sheet 80 (1904-5), 17; Price 1941, 73; de Valera 1960, 107-8, DG. 18; Killanin and Duignan 1962, 289; E.E. Evans 1966, 87; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 292; Herity 1971, 19, no. 1; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 46, no. 138; SMR 1987, 80:13; Killanin and Duignan 1989, 192; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; Herity 1990, 12, no. 2; RMP 1995, 80:13. 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)