Giants Grave — Ballyedmonduff

Located on the lower slopes of Two Rock Mountain in a clearing in the forest, the land falls from NW to SE and the views are totally restricted by trees. When this monument was excavated in 1945 prior to the growth of forestry (Ó Ríordáin and De Valera, 1951-3), it commanded extensive views to the S and SE but the aspect was restricted somewhat upslope to the N and limited to the W. It had been described on the first and subsequent editions of the Ordnance Survey maps as a ‘Giant’s Grave’. When first documented the monument was classed as a tumulus (O’Dovovan, 1837) but the cairn was progressively robbed out to expose the tips of some orthostats of the chambered tomb below. Prior to excavation it consisted of a high oval cairn (L. 17m, Wth. 12m, H, 2m) with the general location of the facade and gallery visible (Borlase 1897, 2, 385-7). Borlase records, quoting O' Curry: " 'I doubt' says he 'that we have encountered a pagan grave as perfect in any other county yet examined' "(ibid, 385). Excavation revealed a ‘classic’ wedge tomb set within a heel-shaped cairn. Centrally placed within the cairn the wedge comprises a gallery aligned E-W divided into three sections, an ante chamber, a main chamber and an eastern end chamber. The horseshoe-shaped cairn, defined by very closely spaced and well-matched kerbstones, has a straight façade at the W onto which the gallery opens. An upright (H. 1.2m) flanking the N side of the entrance is the only in situ façade orthostat in place. Judging from the layout of stone sockets it appears that the façade both to the N and to the S of the gallery curves slightly towards the revetments. According to the excavators the front facade bore the main thrust of the loading from the cairn material. The cairn is composed of stones with a filling of clean yellow sand. Within the cairn is what the excavators describe as a complex series of revetments parallel to the kerb and to the façade. Lying loose on the southern side of the cairn between the kerb and the internal revetment is a granite boulder (L .70cms, W 40cms, D 20cms) with seven small cupmarks on one surface (DU05-089----.) The tomb at Ballyedmonduff is important in that it displays a fairly complete kerb which is largely intact. The original kerb consisted of 25 kerbstones (H. 0.5-1.0m) 17 of which were in place, the remainder indicated by a 0.4m deep construction trench. At the front the kerb curves around in a continuous arc to form the outer revetment of massive orthostats (H.75m – 1.5m). These are set with an inward inclination and with curved outer edges to the stones and straight inner edges. Running parallel to this yet converging at the very large revetment backstone is an inner revetment, absent for a short length to the S but clearly expressed at the N. The ante-chamber is 1.5m (E-W) and .75m (N-S), its sides defined by two orthostats at the N and by a single large orthstat at the S, all damaged by stone cutters. Horizontally laid slabs supplement the height of lower orthostats providing a levelled overall ante-chamber height suggestive of a lintelled roof arrangment. A septal stone running N-S through the chamber edges defines the rear of the ante-chamber and the start of the main chamber. This was also quarried by stone cutters with its upper portions removed. A hard packed sand deposit formed both a floor to the ante-chamber and bedding for the side stones which had rested on the old ground surface. This was approximately .5m higher than the level of the main chamber floor. A fragment of comb or cog impressed pottery was identified embedded in this floor similar in form and decoration to the Bell Beaker wares identified elsewhere in primary deposits in the tomb. The main chamber measures 4.6m in length (E-W) flaring at its mid-point to 1.5m wide. The chamber was initially sketched by the Ordnance Survey who recorded two orthostats along its northern side with three orthostats forming the southern side a septal stone at the front end and a backstone at the rear. A paving composed of flat stones extends 1.25m from the septal slab and above this was an original chamber deposit together with fragments of four bell beaker pottery vessels, three decorated and one undecorated. The excavators identified two small pits 50cms in diameter and 10cm deep cut into the floor of the chamber at it eastern end, one of which filled with cremated bone fragments. The east end-chamber is slightly longer than it is wide formed as a separate unit to the preceding main chamber and to the outer and inner revetments which enclose it. It is defined by four main orthostats on their long sides and a single orthostat whose short end runs N-S from the interior of the chamber outward towards the kerb in line with a similar row of orthostats to the north of the chamber. The height of the side stones are augmented by flat stones which project in a corbelled fashion one above another. Presumably this chamber had a corbelled roof, varying from that suggested for the rest of the gallery. To the rear of the chamber is a very large boulder, forming a focus to the heel of the outer revetment. The east end chamber floor is divided in two portions with a miniature jamb and septal arrangement with the chamber floor at the west a little higher than that to the east. The excavators identified a primary fill of greyish sand complete with pottery fragments, flint and some charcoal lying above the pavement floor. In addition and importantly in terms of their association with the primary phase of tomb construction are sherds recovered from crevices of the paving and immediately underlying the pavement, again Beaker in typology. Almost all of the pottery finds within the gallery of which there are 150 sherds relate to Bell Beaker pots of which there are at least six decorated and a single undecorated Beaker pots. However four sherds resembling neolithic types were also found during excavations; one pot with an everted rim and fingernail decoration; another with an undecorated rolled rim; and a third pot with smooth glossy ware with irregular incised lines. The latter was matched by sherds found in the disturbed cairn material fragments. A final group of sherds of coarse ware were found in disturbed contexts. Miscellaneous flints were found during the excavation including an asymmetric arrowhead (petit tranchet derivative?), a scraper, several retouched flakes and numerous chips. A perforated polished hammerstone, buff coloured of a fine-grained stone was recovered from disturbed deposits just north of the ante-chamber. One end has a braod rounded face, from which a chip has been removed, tapering to a narrower opposite end. The perforation is hour-glass in shape. (Ó Ríordáin and de Valera 1952, 61-81; Price 1940, 124; Turner 1983, 8). This monument was first subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 156/1940). At the conclusion of the excavations it was taken into Guardianship. (NM00131). Compiled by: Geraldine Stout and Margaret Keane Revised and uploaded on: 06/03/2018