What is recorded here

Half of an ancient tomb still stands on the Donegal slope, two tall stones marking what remains of a chamber that once stretched five metres toward the eastern sea. The other half has vanished into fields, roads or memory, leaving only a gap where a dead person's house used to be. Dermod and Grania may have slept beside each other under its stones, or the name may be nothing more than a story invented for a shape the land refused to explain. Either way the chamber is gone and the two stones are all that is left to argue with.

This monument is named 'Stones' on the original OS 6-inch map (1833) and 'Standing Stones' on the edition of 1847-8. It stands on a terrace of arable land on a relatively steep SE-facing slope 1.3km SW of Inishowen Head. The site commands an extensive view northward and eastward out to sea and south-eastward across Lough Foyle. The visible remains comprise two tall upright stones, standing roughly in line and orientated ENE-WSW. The stones are 0.3m apart and equal in height. The western one is 1.55m high, and the eastern is 1.5m high. Closeby to the W a roadside wall runs N-S and to the N of the site turns eastward to form the entranceway to a modern dwelling-house. According to an entry in an OS Revision Name Book (1847-8), these stones formed part of a 'druidical sepulchre' known as 'Dermot and Grania's Bed', and an accompanying sketch of what appears to be a megalithic gallery seems to confirm this. A copy of this sketch is reproduced below. The caption reads: 'Two stones forming portion of a druidical sepulchre generally termed Dermot and Grania's bed but in this case “The Standing Stones” is the only name it is known by, from the sketch below it can be seen what the thing has been'. The orientation of the gallery is not indicated on the sketch but can be gauged from the position of the two surviving stones. It lay open to the ENE, its northern and southern sides apparently parallel and of equal length, with a backstone, rounded in profile, at the WSW. Two stones formed the S side of the structure, and four the N side. The outer two stones at the N side are the two described above. Comparison of the outline of these stones with their depiction on the OS sketch indicates that the top of the eastern one has been damaged in the intervening period. It is also clear from the sketch that the extant stones were considerably taller than the other structural stones. The sketch lacks a scale, but it is clear that together the surviving stones represented half the length of the gallery, which can thus be calculated to have been c. 5m. Only the two stones now visible were apparent by 1900, according to an OS 1:2,500 Name Book of that year. Colhoun (1995) noted some loose stones at the site in 1943. The feature shown on the OS sketch may be all or part of an ENE-facing gallery, perhaps of a court tomb. It cannot, however, be reliably classified on the available evidence. OS Revision Name Book, sheet 13 (1847-8), 40 (sketch); OS 1:2, 500 Name Book, sheet 13 (1900), 30; Lacy 1983, 88, no. 489; SMR 1987, 13:7; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; Colhoun 1995, 52; RMP 1995, 13:7. 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)

A megalithic standing stone or pair of stones, likely dating to the Neolithic or early Bronze Age; its function as a tomb or ritual monument is uncertain due to limited recorded details. The site reflects the prehistoric landscape of the Inishowen Peninsula, an area with significant megalithic remains.

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