Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Killoe, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Megalithic Tombs
Between the Bentee and Aghatubrid mountains in south Kerry, a prehistoric tomb sits half-swallowed by the bog, its capstones slowly disappearing under centuries of accumulated peat.
The field is known locally as Gortaleaca, and the tomb within it is a wedge tomb, one of the most common megalithic monument types in Ireland, built during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. The defining feature of a wedge tomb is its plan: a roofed stone chamber that narrows and lowers toward one end, typically oriented with the wider, taller entrance facing west or south-west, toward the setting sun.
This example sits on a small natural platform on the northern side of the valley, positioned with a wide view westward over the Oghermong river basin toward Valentia Island and the Atlantic beyond. The chamber, aligned roughly east-north-east to west-south-west, measures at least 2.9 metres in overall length. At its western end, the remains of a portico survive, an ante-chamber or forecourt-like feature formed by upright stones, or orthostats, that would have framed the entrance. A markedly inclined septal stone, a dividing slab set between the portico and the main chamber, is still visible, as is one orthostat from the portico's northern side. Along the southern wall, two orthostats decrease in height as they move eastward, consistent with the wedge form. A collapsed side-stone is partially visible to the north. Two roof slabs remain in place, though the western one is slightly displaced and both are increasingly obscured by peat growth, which has crept over the eastern roof-stone almost entirely. Faint traces of the original covering mound can still be made out on the southern side.
The tomb's setting is not incidental. Wedge tombs across Ireland frequently occupy elevated ground with open western aspects, and this one, despite being deeply embedded in rough boggy terrain, maintains exactly that orientation. Reaching it requires crossing ground that is by all accounts wet and uneven, and the peat that has worked its way over the roof-stones gives some indication of what the surrounding conditions are like underfoot.