Templemoyle Portal Tomb

The monument, c. 3km W of Culdaff, is prominently sited toward the western end of a boggy ridge broken by rock outcrops. To the S and W is a fall to lower ground mainly devoted to pasture. The sea inlet of Trawbreaga Bay, 4km distant, is visible to the W. The tomb consists of a small SE-facing chamber, the front of which has collapsed. The chamber was at least 1.8m long and is 1 m wide at the rear. A backstone at the NW and two opposed sidestones are in place. A displaced roofstone, its front end resting on the ground, is supported on the outer end of the southern sidestone and on a small stone (not on plan) on top of the northern sidestone. A prostrate stone in front of the southern sidestone appears to be a displaced portal-stone. It measures 2m by 0.65m by 0.2m thick. This seems to be the stone referred to in an OS Revision Name Book (1848) as 'an upright stone 4 feet [c. 1.2m] high which appears to have originally supported the covering stone but having leaned a little toward the south by some unknown cause leaves one end of the covering stone resting on the ground'. Some loose stones (not on plan) lie in the chamber. A slightly raised grassy patch, c. 5m across, alongside the southern sidestone may be the remains of an enclosing mound. The backstone, set between the ends of the sidestones, leans inward slightly and is gabled in profile. It is 0.6m high, c. 0.3m lower than the sidestones, both of which lean in against it. The southern sidestone is 0.9m high. The northern one is 1.05m in sloping height. The roofstone is 2.3m long, narrows from 2m wide at the front to 1.3m near the back, and decreases in thickness from 0.35m to 0.1m in the same direction. According to the OS Revision Name Book (1848), the E end of the chamber, now open, was then closed by a slab (dimensions not recorded). This may have been a doorstone or sillstone. OS Revision Name Book, sheet 4 (1848), 44; Colhoun 1949, 116; Ó Nualláin 1968a, 295, no. 3; Bonner 1972, 16; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 36, no. 73; Ó Nualláin 1983b, 93, Donegal no. 1; SMR 1987, 4:35; Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; Colhoun 1995, 7-8, plate 2 (a); RMP 1995, 4:35. 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). Volume VI. County Donegal. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002)