What is recorded here

The densest wedge-tomb cluster in Ireland still marks Roughan Hill, where Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age builders shaped stone before memory faded. Caherfadda holds one ruined chamber, its south wall collapsed beneath a broken roof while the north stone leans east like a shoulder bracing weight. People may have walked this gentle slope, buried their dead, and left the mound trimmed along the south side. The tomb no longer stands complete, but it still points toward the hands that aligned it.

On a gentle NW-facing slope of Roughan Hill and within an extensive multiperiod field system (CL017-180----). It is recorded by Jones and Walsh (1996, 88) as Site A and the following details are taken from there. A damaged wedge tomb with a ruined WNW-ESE-aligned chamber (L 2.5m; Wth 1.5m at E) comprising a single side stone on the N side and the E portion of a sidestone at the S. The top of the N sidestone slopes to the E and there are three packing-stones at its base on the N side. The S sidestone has collapsed into the chamber area and lies beneath the broken roofstone. A large slab in the W end of the chamber may be an endstone and multiple displaced and broken slabs in the vicinity may be the remains of the roofstone and broken S sidestone. Traces of a mound are visible along the S side of the monument. This tomb is part of the Roughan hill group, in Parknabinnia, Leana, Caherfadda and Commons North townlands, acknowledged as the densest concentration of wedge tombs in Ireland (Jones et al. 2015). Excavations have been carried out at three wedge tombs in the area: CL017-180002- (Ó Maoldúin 2015), CL017-009---- (Ó Maoldúin 2017) and CL016-061002- (Ó Maoldúin 2022) and have confirmed their date of construction as Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age (Ó Maoldúin pers. comm.). The following image has been uploaded: CL016-130----_01.jpg View of wedge tomb from SW Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Lynda McCormack Date of upload: 19 July 2022

Wedge tomb, dating to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. Its location within a multiperiod landscape highlights its significance in understanding prehistoric settlement and funerary practices in the region.

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