Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Corderry, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic tomb – wedge tomb, Corderry, Co. Tipperary

On the western slope of Moanour mountain, at the quieter end of the Slievenamuck ridge in County Tipperary, a prehistoric tomb is slowly being swallowed by the bog.

The structure has not collapsed so much as subsided, its stones tilting and settling into the soft ground over millennia, until the circular mound that once marked it above the landscape now barely clears the surface of the surrounding moorland.

This is a wedge tomb, a type of megalithic burial monument common in the west and south of Ireland and typically dated to the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, roughly 2500 to 2000 BC. The form is distinctive: a long gallery, wider and taller at the entrance end and narrowing toward the back, the whole structure oriented so that the entrance faces roughly east or south-east. Here the gallery runs to 5.4 metres in length, tapering from 1.1 metres wide at the entrance to 0.65 metres at the backstone. Flanking outer walls survive on both sides, and two roofstones still lie across the middle of the gallery, though a third has shifted out of position. A pair of orthostats, the large upright slabs that form the structural skeleton of such monuments, stand behind the eastern end. A number of other stones lie displaced in front of the entrance, their original arrangement now uncertain. The whole structure sits within a roughly circular mound eight to nine metres in diameter. The account of this tomb by Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, published in their 1982 survey of megalithic tombs across Munster, remains the principal documentary record of the site.

The tomb is heavily overgrown with gorse, brambles, ferns, and scrub, and a rowan tree has taken root on the southern side of the eastern end, its roots working between the ancient stones. The vegetation makes the structure difficult to read at a glance, and the partial burial in bog means that what is visible above ground represents only a fraction of what was originally built. The platform setting on the mountain slope, with moorland stretching away on all sides, gives some sense of the elevated, open position that builders of such monuments consistently chose.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Megalithic tomb – wedge tomb, Corderry, Co. Tipperary. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement