Megalithic tomb in Ballynamuddagh

Eugene O’Curry, writing in 1838, recorded that ‘There is a place in Ballenambuddagh Townland called the Giant’s Grave, but no vestige whatever of a grave remains.’ (OSL, Co. Wicklow, 80). The precise nature and location of this potential monument are unknown and it cannot, without further evidence, be accepted as the remains of a megalithic tomb. Kenny (1985, 147) has suggested that this may be identified with the ‘heap of stones at Windgate in the county of Wicklow’ noted by Sir James Ware and published in 1705 in the English translation of his Antiquities (1705, 153). Walter Harris, in his edition of the works of Ware, describes it as ‘vast’ (1749, ii, 140-1, 202). This, undoubtedly, is the source of the reference to the ‘cairn of vast dimensions’ at Windgate mentioned in Brewer’s Beauties of Ireland (1825, 282) and which O’Curry could find no knowledge of locally in 1838 (OSL, Co. Wicklow, 92). Although the townland of Ballynamuddagh lies immediately N of the village of Windgate, in this writer’s opinion, it is not certain that O’Curry’s ‘giant’s grave’ and Ware’s ‘heap of stones’ are one and the same monument. (Ware 1705, 153; Harris 1749, 140-1, 202; OS Letters, Co. Wicklow, 80; Stokes 1878, 145 (Delgany may refer); Price 1934, 38; Price 1957, 326; Kenny 1985, 147) Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 23 November 2012