What is recorded here

Wedge tomb in Ballyhearny East, Valencia Island, County Kerry: a ruined Neolithic chamber on a small terrace above Portmagee Channel, now reduced to one upright gallery stone and two fallen slabs, perhaps a roof-stone among them. It faced south over water and pasture, a place for setting the dead beneath a chamber that has since collapsed or been moved. Around 2005 local information says the stones were taken and laid against a field boundary two hundred metres east, stripping the terrace of its shape but leaving the stones behind to mark what the ground once held.

Situated on a small, level terrace on the S slope of Coombe Hill, Valencia Island, this tomb commands a wide outlook S across Portmagee Channel. The land in the immediate vicinity provides rough mountain pasture. One upright and two prostrate slabs are all that remain of this ruined monument. The upright, 1.02m high, stands on edge N of the other stones and measures 2.4m x .16m at base; it is aligned NE-SW. Its upper edge slopes downwards from W to E and it appears to be a gallery side-stone. Lying .3m S of it, the first prostrate slab measures 2m x 1.82m x .15m; at least nine solution pits occur on its upper surface. It probably served as a roof-stone. The second slab lies adjacent to this at S and measures 2.37m x 1.28m x .1m; it may represent a gallery side-stone. According to local information, the wedge tomb was removed sometime around 2005 and the orthostats and roof-stone were deposited against a field boundary c. 200m to the east (ITM E 440384 N 576183). The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 71. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 16 May 2017

Wedge tomb; late Neolithic or early Bronze Age (c. 2500–1000 BCE). Its location on a prominent hillside suggests ceremonial or communal significance, typical of wedge tombs in the Atlantic facade region of Ireland.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.