What is recorded here

The largest chamber tomb in County Clare holds a broken limestone slab and a massive slid capstone within a disturbed mound. It stands on a hillock above the Carran depression, labelled a cromlech on old maps while nearby field walls and shifting stones mark the passage of time. The chamber remains visible beneath its collapsed roof, preserving the shape of a place where people once buried their dead before the land changed around them.

On a hillock at the N end of the Carran depression in an area of reclaimed pastureland and cragland. Indicated and labelled ‘Cromlech’ on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. Described by de Valera and Ó Nualláin (1961, 24–5) as a much collapsed and greatly disturbed wedge tomb (est. int. dims. L c. 2.65m; Wth at rear 1.65m; Wth at front 1.75m), aligned SW–NE, which was embedded in the NW sector of a subcircular mound (diam. c. 6m). A NNW-SSE running field wall crossed the W part it. The N side of the chamber was originally defined by an upright limestone slab (L c. 2.65m; H at E c. 1.3; H at W c. 1.35m; T 0.2–0.25m), now broken. The base remained in situ, in three pieces, and the upper part of the stone was in two pieces to the N of the base. The S side was defined by two upright slabs, which may have originally formed a single sidestone. The E slab (L 1m; H 0.8m) appeared to have been slightly displaced. The W slab (L 1.25m; H 1.1m) leaned to the N and under it there was a stone (H 0.2m) that was probably not in its original position. The capstone (L 4.5m; Wth at NE 2.4m; Wth at SW 2.7m; T 0.25m) had slid to the N and overlay the N sidestone. It was also supported by the more westerly of the S sidestones and by a boulder (H 0.5m) at its E end; the latter did not appear to be an original feature. The capstone was in this position when described by Westropp (1898, 366). Clear indications of the mound surrounding the chamber survived to the E and S of the tomb. An inspection of the tomb in 1998 found it to have been slightly damaged in the interim (SMR file). The site of a cairn (CL009-048002-) lies c. 44m to the SE. Another wedge tomb (CL009-046----) lies c. 350m to the N. See linked document with details from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume I. County Clare. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1961) Compiled by: Olive Alcock and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 27 January 2022

Wedge tomb; late Neolithic or early Bronze Age. Its inclusion on early Ordnance Survey maps and historical descriptions highlight its archaeological and historical significance in the region.

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