Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Borrismore, Co. Kilkenny

Co. Kilkenny |

Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic tomb – portal tomb, Borrismore, Co. Kilkenny

On the crest of a north-south ridge in County Kilkenny, with tillage fields sloping away on either side down to river plains, there is a cluster of large stones that may or may not be what it appears to be.

A substantial capstone-like slab, nearly three metres long and over two metres wide, rests partly on two inclined uprights. The whole arrangement resembles a portal tomb, the type of megalithic burial monument in which two tall upright stones support a large covering slab, forming a chamber open at one end. But this one comes with an asterisk. The stones are rough and uneven, the lean of the uprights is irregular, and surveyors have been unable to classify the structure conclusively as prehistoric at all.

By the early nineteenth century the site sat within the demesne of Borrismore House, and this is where the uncertainty deepens. A demesne was the private landed estate surrounding a large house, and it was fashionable during that period for landowners to embellish their grounds with follies, decorative constructions designed to evoke antiquity or romance rather than serve any practical purpose. The historian Carrigan, writing in 1905, described it simply as a cromlech, the older term for a portal tomb, in the land of a Mr De Courcy. Earlier sources, including Tighe in 1802 and Lewis in 1837, also noted the structure, suggesting it was already a feature of local interest. The possibility remains, however, that the whole thing was assembled or arranged as part of the landscaping of the former demesne, using rough fieldstones rather than shaped prehistoric slabs. Two smaller stones lie nearby, and field clearance material has been dumped in the area, adding further clutter to an already ambiguous scene. A tree now grows at the northern foot of the monument, gradually asserting its own kind of permanence over stones whose origins remain genuinely open.

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Pete F
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