What is recorded here

Three metres of carved stone still lean inside a shallow hollow on the Clare plateau, preserving the front chamber of a tomb built for people who watched the ocean appear beyond the fields. It belongs to the Ballynahown group, where several wedge tombs are scattered across land already marked by old boundaries. The chamber narrows toward the rear like a wedge driven into earth, while broken wall lines fade into grass and memory.

In a depression on a level karstic plateau, within a large multiperiod field system (CL004-027001-), with higher ground to the E and views of the ocean from SSW to NW. It is one of four wedge tombs (CL004-066001- and CL004-066002-, CL004-071---- and CL004-073----) known as the Ballynahown group in the Megalithic Survey (De Valera and Ó Nualláin 1961, 41). Westropp (1907, 462) recorded a ‘giant's grave…in a walled hollow’ with ‘rows of large stones, and entrance’. This may refer to this tomb which is located in a slight depression or it may refer to another wedge tomb (CL004-073----) c. 500m to the NE which is located in an oval hollow and is surrounded by a later stone wall. A poorly preserved wedge tomb with a SSW-aligned chamber (est. min. L 3.6m; est. Wth c. 1.75m) which increases in height toward the front. It is on a low mound (est. diam. c. 7.5m) crossed by a NNE-SSW-oriented field wall c. 2.5m to the E of the chamber. The tomb was recorded in the Megalithic Survey as CL. 46 (De Valera and Ó Nualláin 1961, 40) (although the orientations cited in the written description are incorrect). The W side of the chamber comprises a single slab (L 3.6m; H 1.55m at SSW; H 1.45m at NNE; T 0.15m) with traces of dressing on its upper edge. A small, set slab (L 0.45m; H 0.25m; T 0.1m) located 1.75m to the E may be the broken base of an E sidestone. To the rear of the chamber are two parallel lines of slabs. The inner line comprises two E-W aligned slabs set end to end (W stone: L 1.2m; H 0.4m; T 0.15m; E stone: L 1m; H 0.3m; T 0.15m) 0.3m N of the W sidestone and the outer line, c. 1m to the N, comprises a single set slab (L 1.85m; H 0.2m; T 0.1m); both are likely remnants of outer wall lines. To the front of the chamber there are two small stones with similar dimensions (L 0.4m; H 0.1m; T 0.05m), set perpendicular and 1-1.5m beyond the W sidestone; these either mark the front of the chamber or an outer wall line. Two stones to the W of the W sidestone may also represent outer-walling (N stone: L 1.1m; H 0.2m; T 0.15m; S stone: L 0.8m; H 0.35m; T 0.1m). Further to the W of these stones is a small irregular upright (L 0.25m; H 0.45m; T 0.1m). Field inspection in 1998 noted that the E sidestone, small front stones and low mound were no longer visible because of vegetation. Another wedge tomb (CL004-066002-) is located c. 91m to the N. The following items have been uploaded: CL004-066001-_01.pdf Details from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume I. County Clare. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1961). CL004-066001-_01.jpg View from N CL004-066001-_02.jpg View from S Date of upload: 23 December 2011

Wedge tomb, dating to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age (c. 2500–1000 BC). Its location within a multiperiod landscape suggests it was part of a broader ritual or funerary tradition in the region.

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