Straleel North Portal Tomb

This monument stands on rough bogland amid outcrops of rock on a level patch of ground just above the head of the valley of the Sruhanstraleel River. The site commands an extensive outlook south-eastward toward the sea at Teelin Bay. The monument is quite ruined. It consists of a small E-facing chamber c. 2m long and 0.6m to c. 0.8m wide. A grass-grown mound encircling the structure measures 9.5m N-S by 9m E-W by 0.3m high. Its outline is difficult to trace at the E, where it merges with rock outcrop. Three orthostats of the chamber remain. Two of these, a portal-stone to the E and a sidestone beside it, form the N side of the chamber. The portal-stone has split into two separate uprights, and it is likely that a piece has been broken from its top. The sidestone leans inward. The third orthostat, opposite the sidestone, forms the S side of the chamber. A subsidiary roofstone rests on the two sidestones. The main roofstone, a large slab, is displaced and lies tilted over the front of the chamber, its front end on the ground and its inner end supported on the subsidiary roofstone and the portal-stone. The portal stone is 0.8m long, was 0.4m thick when intact, and is 1m high at its inner face. The sidestone beside it leans inward. It is 0.9m long and 0.2m thick and would stand at least 0.6m high if upright. The southern sidestone is 0.9m high. The subsidiary roofstone, now in a sloping position because of the inward lean of the northern sidestone, measures 1.4m by 1.35m and is 0.3m thick. The main roofstone measures 2.5m in overall length, narrows from 2.1m wide near its W end to 1.3m near the E end, and is 0.3m thick. Thomas Fagan (1845-8) visited this monument in 1847, and it appears from his account that it was then in its present state. Fagan 1845-8, book 20, 30-31; Killanin and Duignan 1962, 290 ('Straleela' may refer); Ó Nualláin 1968a, 299, no. 3; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 35, no. 72; Ó Nualláin 1983b, 95, Donegal no. 23; SMR 1987, 90:1; Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; RMP 1995, 90:1. The above description was published in the 'Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI, County Donegal.' Compiled by: Eamon Cody (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). Date of upload: 22 September 2008 See linked document with details from Eamon Cody, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI. County Donegal. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002)

Portal dolmen; Neolithic period. Its location on elevated ground suggests it may have had ritual or ceremonial significance, possibly linked to landscape orientation or maritime views.