Dermot and Granias Bed — Cruachlann (tc Gleann Cholm Cille)

The monument lies just N of the road between Teelin and Bunglass in steeply undulating land c. 600m from the coast. It stands on a reasonably level patch of bog-grown ground close to the base of a steep rock face. An outlook southward over Donegal Bay is restricted by two low hills, one to the SE and the other to the SW. This damaged structure consists of what appears to be the remains of a segmented gallery, now 3.5m long and c. 2m wide, aligned ENE-WSW. A large flat-topped stone, 2.15m long (E-W), representing the N side of the gallery, is supported in a leaning position by a low set stone, the northern one of two running to the S from its eastern end. These two stones appear to divide the gallery. The large leaning slab, 0.25-0.35m thick, measures 0.7m high at its outer face and, because of the lowering of ground level in the chamber area, c. 1.30 high at its inner face. It rises 0.5m above the top of the northern of the two segmenting stones, which is 0.6m in exposed height. The southern segmenting stone is of similar height. Just 0.9m SE of this, two stones next to each other seem to represent the S side of the gallery. The western one is 0.35m in exposed height, and the eastern is 0.3m high. The W end of the last stone is damaged, and it appears as if an attempt was made to smash it. According to Fagan (1845-8), there was a further stone on the S side of the gallery. It stood opposite the northern orthostat, was of similar size and also leaned inward. Local information confirms that this stone stood until the 1920s or 1930s. Immediately beside the E end of the leaning slab at the N side of the gallery a stone projects at an angle from the ground. Its W end is jammed between a slight prow of the leaning slab and the northern of the two stones marking the segmentation. It measures 0.4m long (E-W) by at least 0.45m in sloping height and is 0.15m thick. This may be a corbel. Two displaced stones lie partly buried in the gallery area. One, just E of the segmenting stones, measures at least 0.5m in maximum dimension, and the other, at the W end of the structure, at least 0.8m in maximum dimension. There is a considerable number of slabs, some quite sizeable, around the site and especially to the N, toward the nearby rock face from which they may have been quarried. The two stones forming the possible segmentation may be a jamb, to the N, with an adjoining sillstone pointing, perhaps, to the remains being those of a court tomb of at least two chambers. Nevertheless, more compelling evidence would be required to establish that this is the case, and the monument must remain unclassified. Fagan 1845-8, book 19, 50; OS 1:2,500 Name Book, sheet 96 (1905), 24; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 140; Conaghan 1974, 15; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 47, no. 154; SMR 1987, 96:15; RMP 1995, 96:15. 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)