Dermot & Granias Bed — Melkagh

In a thicket on gently rolling farmland. This monument was almost totally demolished during land reclamation in 1982-3. The surviving portion was subsequently excavated over three seasons from 1984 to 1986 (Cooney 1997). A portal-tomb chamber stood on the main axis of a long cairn at or close to its SSW end. Some 2m to the N, a subsidiary chamber opened on to the more W side of the cairn. The portal-tomb chamber (L c. 2m) consisted of two portal-stones (H 1.55m) at either end of an intervening doorstone (H 1.25m) and two inward-leaning opposed sidestones 1.2m apart. The chamber lacked a backstone. Two stones formed the S side of the subsidiary chamber (L c. 1.5m; Wth c. 1m), the more W apparently an entrance jamb (H 0.45m) overlapped by a sidestone (H 0.7m). Opposite the last, the only surviving orthostat on the N side lay almost prostrate. A small stone, apparently a packing-stone, was exposed at its W end. The E end of the chamber was closed by an inward-leaning backstone (H 0.8m). About midway between the subsidiary chamber and the portal tomb were two set stones, the taller 0.5m high. Their role was unclear. Some other large stones at the site did not appear to be structural. The excavation of the levelled site revealed traces of cairn material including a slab-built wall thought to be part of the W perimeter of the cairn revetment. Finds, mainly flakes of chert and flint, included a concave scraper and a hollow-based arrowhead. (de Valera and Ó Nualláin 1972, 87, no. 1) See linked document with details from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume III. Counties Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath, Laoighis, Offaly, Kildare, Cavan. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1972). Compiled by: Eamon Cody Date of upload: 27 February 2012