Carn — Carrowkeel (tirerrill By., Templevanny Ed)

This is a National Monument in State care (no. 518). Carn E in the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann passage tomb cemetery. On the bog-covered cliff-walled northern tip of one of the N-S aligned ridges that form the Bricklieve Mountains. Another passage tomb (SL040-096----) lies 200m to S. A long cairn (L 40m; min. H 2m), its perimeter partly obscured by heather-grown bog, is aligned NNW-SSE. Visible kerbstones indicate a max. width of 11m at the S. Close to the N end of the cairn there is a cruciform passage tomb. This consists of a NNW-facing main chamber (L 4m; min. Wth 0.6m, max. Wth 1.35m) divided by sills into four compartments. Opposed side-chambers, both polygonal in outline, and both c. 1m by 0.7m in dimension, open off the taller main chamber. Four orthostats are in place on each side of the main chamber and a fifth example has collapsed inwards at the inner end of the E side. Six orthostats form the sides and back of the well-preserved eastern side-chamber which is entered from the main chamber over a sillstone. Four orthostats are in place around the sides and back of the western side-chamber. Each side-chamber is roofed by a single large slab supported on corbelling. A slab laid lintel-like on the outer pair of opposed sidestones of the main chamber is a modern feature. Immediately in front of the main chamber there is a tall stone which projects outwards from the line of the E side of the structure. This stone and at least three other large stones which seem to be displaced to a lesser or greater degree suggest there may have been further structure at this end of the tomb. Bone fragments, a minute sherd of pottery, a poppy-headed and a mushroom-headed pin and portion of a boar's tusk were recovered from the tomb in 1911 (Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger 1912, 323-4, 332-3). At the southern end of the cairn there is a setting of stones which has been compared to a court (Ó Nualláin 1989, 75-6, no. 120, 82). If, as appears to be the case, it opened onto the end of the cairn it would have measured 5m N-S and almost the same dimension E-W. A large orthostat (L 3.3m) forms the inner end of this feature, there are two on its more westerly side and one on the opposite side. Some 2.5m NE of the court-like feature there is a small chamber opening onto the E side of the cairn. Two pairs of opposed sidestones are visible at the front of this chamber (min. L 1.5m). A roofstone and three corbels, all now partly displaced apparently due to the investigation of the site in 1911 (Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger 1912, 323-4, 332-3), obscure the rear of the chamber. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005). See linked documents with details from Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume V. County Sligo. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1989) together with plans and sections of the monument (surveyed 1997). Date of upload: 27 May 2013