Carn — Doonaveeragh

This is a National Monument in State care (no. 518). Carn O in the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann passage tomb cemetery. At the northern end of Doonaveeragh, the easternmost of the N-S aligned ridges forming the Bricklieve Mountains. A circular cairn (diam. 18-20m; H 2.5m), its lower levels grass-grown, contains towards its southern end a partly roofed chamber (L 2m; max. Wth 0.8m; H 0.9m). Built of orthostats and dry-wall infill, a narrowing of the chamber indicates a division into a shorter and narrower compartment, now roofless, to the S and a slightly wider and longer northern compartment, roofed by two slabs, one overlying the other. Both ends of the chamber are closed. It was investigated in 1911 (Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger 1912, 330, 336-7) when entry was gained through the roof. A decorated Bronze Age bowl was found within the chamber, resting on a pile of burnt and unburnt bones intermixed with small sandstone slabs (ibid.; Ó Riordáin and Waddell 1993,130). There is a Neolithic settlement (SL040-108----) on the lower ground to N. A cairn (SL040-100----) lies c. 200m to SSE. (Ó Nualláin 1989, 83-4) 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 plans and sections of the monument (surveyed 1995). Date of upload: 27 May 2013