Labbinlee Court Tomb — Killeen

This tomb stands in level pasture, 800m S of the River Erne and c. 3km SE of Ballyshannon. The all-round outlook from the site is now limited by trees and bushes. It consists of a gallery entered at the E between two jambs that support a large lintel and closed by a flat- topped backstone at the W. The gallery entrance is incorporated in a field wall. The monument lacks a court, and there is no trace of a surrounding mound. There is a considerable fill of stones in the outer half of the gallery, and the surface of its inner half is sunk c. 0.5m below that of the ground outside. The well-matched entrance jambs are 0.85m apart. The southern one, partly concealed, is set in line with the gallery wall and is 0.8m in exposed height. The northern one, set inside the line of the gallery, is also 0.8m high. The overlying lintel rests directly on the jambs. It is a large block with a flat base and a humpback upper surface. It is 1.7m long, 1.35m in greatest width and up to 0.75m thick. The gallery is 6.4m long and 1.8-2m wide internally. Two orthostats form its northern side, and four its southern side. The outer one of the two at the N, a very large slab, 4m long, overlaps the adjacent jamb. It is 1.8m high at its inner face and rises c. 0.8m above the top of the jamb. The adjoining orthostat is 1.65m in exposed height at its inner face. The outer faces of the first two orthostats at the S side are concealed. The first one is 0.85m in exposed height. It runs on behind the second orthostat, which is also 0.8m in exposed height. A corbel resting on this stone measures 1.5m by 0.95m by 0.4m thick. The third orthostat, slightly inside the line of the last, is 1.3m high at its inner face. The innermost one is 1.6m in exposed height. A small low stone, 0.3m in maximum dimension, in the gap between this and the backstone, is not set in the ground. The backstone, its N end overlapped by the inner orthostat on that side of the gallery, is 1.15m high at its inner face. Detailed accounts of this monument by Thomas Fagan (1845-8) and another in an OS Revision Name Book (1847-50) show that it was then in its present condition. On the basis of the length of the gallery a division into two chambers seems likely. OS Name Book, Kilbarron parish (1835-6), book 4, 3; Fagan 1845-8, book 17, 34-5 (sketch of lintelled entrance); OS Revision Name Book, sheet 107 (1847-50) 26; Allingham 1879, 109 ('Nearer Ballyshannon, and close to Fortwilliam, are the remains of a cromlech'); de Valera 1960, 110, DG. 30 (plan); Holly 1975-6, 193-5; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 22, no. 27; SMR 1987, 107:85; Ó Nualláin 1989, 117; RMP 1995, 107:85. 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)