Cloghanmore Court Tomb

The monument (National Monument no. 139 (4) in state care), first shown on the 1848-50 edition of the OS 6-inch map, appears as 'Ruins of a Druidical Temple' on the pre-publication field map. It stands on generally level, grass-grown, boggy ground toward the head of the valley opening onto the N end of Malin Bay, 2.3km to the W. It is 50m S of the stream that flows westward along the valley and commands a good outlook toward the sea. The depth of bog in the immediate vicinity of the monument is at least 1m. The monument, partly restored by the Board of Works toward the end of the 19th century, is in a fair state of preservation. Its orthostatic structure stands in a coffin-shaped cairn bounded by drystone walling. At the E, a short passage opens into a large, orthostatically defined full court of oval outline. Just inside the entrance passage a subsidiary chamber opens onto each arm of the court. The outer face of a court orthostat beside the entrance to each of these chambers bears picked motifs, apparently prehistoric in origin. Two galleries, parallel to each other and c. 1m apart, open off the western end of the court, and each is divided by jambs into two chambers. The earliest available account of this monument is by Thomas Fagan, who saw it in 1847. Both he and Norman Moore (1872, 523), who visited here in 1871, found it difficult to interpret, perhaps because of its disordered state, and their reports are of limited value. Both included a rough sketch of the monument with their reports, but these cannot be reconciled either with each other or with the structure as now exposed. There are two useful illustrations of the monument before its restoration, both reproduced by Borlase (1897, 241). One is the plan published by Sir Samuel Ferguson (1879, 122). He visited the site in 1864, and the plan is thought to date to that year. The other, an undated and unattributed drawing showing a view of the monument from the front, was among a collection of drawings made available by Margaret Stokes to Borlase (1897, ix). Both illustrations are reproduced below. On Ferguson's plan cross-hatched areas seem intended to represent chambers, but set stones are not distinguished from displaced ones, and there is no indication of orientation. Nevertheless, as on the Stokes collection drawing, the main features of the monument can be recognised. The involvement of the Board of Works at this tomb (see Introduction) is referred to in the annual reports of that institution (CPW 1886, 22; 1887, 24), but these contain practically no information about the nature of the work undertaken. One of the annual reports includes a description of the tomb (CPW 1887, 63), but this too contains little information, and the accompanying plan omits part of one of the galleries of the monument. This account does mention that 'the cells are being cleared out'. Work at the site seems to have been completed in 1887 (CPW 1888, 24). However, a few years later unspecified work was carried out at a site identified only as 'Cloughan More' (CPW 1892, 24; 1893, 28). It is not known whether this is the same site as that described here. Borlase (1897, 240-4), who visited the site in 1888, the year after its restoration, incorrectly assigned a N-S orientation to the main axis of the monument. He was informed that 'some few objects, such as pottery etc.' had been found by the workmen during the restoration. The precise nature and extent of the restoration work carried out by the Board of Works are not clear, but it appears from the available evidence, particularly the pre-restoration drawings, to have mainly involved removing cairn spill from the court, clearing the chambers, exposing the cairn outline and rebuilding the drystone kerb. This work would inevitably have entailed considerable archaeological loss. The cairn The restored cairn is 46.3m long and attains its maximum width, 16.7m, midway along the court, from where it narrows to 12m at the E and 7.5m at the W. Its eastern half is 1-1.5m high. Toward the W and beyond the galleries it gradually declines by c. 1m in height. Rough grass now grows on its W end, which was bog grown until revealed during the restoration by the Board of Works. According to Borlase (1897, 241), the base of the drystone kerb was exposed by digging a trench around the monument. On the exposed base of the kerb, to judge from the denuded state of the front of the cairn as portrayed on the pre-restoration drawing from the Stokes collection, the Board of Works built a substantial 'wall' of dry stonework around the court. This rises above the court orthostats and is generally 2-2.5m thick but reaches 5.7m and 4.2m at the outer ends of the N and S sides of the monument. It is clear that T.N. Deane, then Superintendent of the Board of Works, believed that this monument was a cashel with 'cells' and not a chambered cairn (CPW 1887, 63). This must raise a question about the reliability of the shape of the restored cairn, which has been unfavourably commented on (Wakeman 1890-91; Anon. 1890-91b). Only excavation could now determine this issue, but it is significant that its coffin-shaped outline has since found parallels at excavated monuments such as Behy (Ma. 3) and Shalwy (Dg. 113). It would be expected, though, that cairn height would dip toward the court entrance, which is not the case here, and it is probable that the cairn at the front is built to a height greater than it is likely to have been in its original state. The facade and entrance passage The facade of the restored cairn is of drystone construction except for two orthostats, one at either side of the entrance passage to the court. It is considered that these may be in situ or at least restored to their original positions. Both are relatively low. The northern one is 0.35m high, and the southern one is 0.4m high. Opposed orthostats form each side of the entrance passage, which is 3m long and 1.9-2.2m wide. The orthostat on the northern side is 1m high, and that at the S is 0.6m high. A displaced slab, 2m by 1m by 0.3m thick, leans against the northern orthostat. On Ferguson's (1879, 122) plan the space between the orthostats is cross-hatched, indicating that he may have considered this a chamber, an opinion shared by Borlase (1897, 243). The court The court is 16m long (E-W) and 12m wide. Court orthostats, their tops and outer faces hidden by the reconstructed cairn, survive along the full length of the S arm, except for short gaps, and there are two rather more substantial gaps in the N arm, one of 2.2m at around mid-length and one 4m long in its outer half. Nine stones survive along the N arm. They range from 0.9m to 1.75m long and from 0.2m to 1.5m high. There are seventeen stones along the S arm, 0.5-1.75m long and 0.2-1 .1m high. The thicknesses of the courtstones cannot all be determined, but they seem to be 0.3m or more in most instances. In both arms the innermost stone is a tall one: that at the N is 1.5m high, and that at the S is 1.1m high at its inner end, sloping to 0.6m at its outer end. Beyond each there is a steady diminution in the heights of the courtstones to around midway along both arms, beyond which, with the exception of the stones fronting the subsidiary chambers, they vary from c. 0.2m to 0.5m high. Apart from one or two taller ones at the inner end of the N arm, the courtstones do not appear to be represented on the two pre-restoration drawings of the monument. The annual reports of the Board of Works provide no information on the state of the court, but the occurrence of gaps between the orthostats indicates that, although fallen or leaning stones may have been re-erected as found, no attempt was made to replace missing ones. The cleared court is shown in a photograph from the Lawrence collection (c. 1880-1910). In the inner half of the court are a number of displaced slabs. One of these, less than 1m from the front of the northern gallery, measures 1.6m by 1.15m and is 0.6m thick. To t