Carn — Treanscrabbagh

Carn B in the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann passage tomb cemetery. At the cliff-walled northern extremity of one of the N-S aligned ridges that form the Bricklieve Mountains. This is a National Monument in State care (no. 518). A N-facing undifferentiated passage tomb, exposed in 1911 (Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger 1912, 321-3), stands towards the northern end of a circular cairn (diam. 27m; max. H 5m). Around the southern half of the perimeter and half way down the cairn there are traces of the internal revetment of a drystone wall (ibid.). Surviving kerbstones indicate an original cairn diameter of 23m. The roofed chamber measures 2.85m from a sillstone at the front to the backstone. It widens from 0.6m at the front to 1.25m at the rear and increases in height from some 0.9m to c. 1.5m. Two further sillstones divide it into three compartments, the innermost slightly longer and also wider than the others. The innermost sillstone stands between two jamb-like stones set inside the chamber walls. It would seem that this feature is incorrectly surveyed on the published plan (Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger 1912, Pl. 17) and interpreted as a cist. Passage tomb art has been discovered on the N jambstone and adjacent orthostat (Hensey and Robin 2012). Three large slabs roof the tomb. The published plan shows a recess to the right of the sillstone at the front of the tomb. It does seem that this is not an original feature but the result of partial collapse. Immediately forward of the front sill there are two opposed slabs, the bases of both exposed, and each apparently deliberately propped against the outer ends of the sides of the tomb. Their status is uncertain. During the 1911 investigation burnt human bone and some pottery fragments were found in the tomb and two short cists (SL040-097002-), apparently secondary, were uncovered on the E side of the cairn of the passage tomb. A cashel (SL040-082001-) and field wall (SL040-082002-) lie c. 80m to W. (Ó Nualláin 1989, 82) 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). Revised by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 24 September 2012 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 1996). Date of upload: 27 May 2013