Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Knocknagoun, Co. Cork

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Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic tomb – wedge tomb, Knocknagoun, Co. Cork

On the south-east-facing slope of Knocknagoun Mountain, looking down over the basin of the Dripsey River, a small but remarkably intact wedge tomb has survived the millennia in quiet obscurity.

Wedge tombs are the most numerous class of megalithic monument in Ireland, built during the late Neolithic and into the Bronze Age, and they take their name from the characteristic tapering of the burial gallery from west to east. This one is no exception to that pattern, though its modest scale makes the precision of its construction all the more striking.

The tomb's gallery runs along a NW-SE axis and measures 2.6 metres in length, narrowing from a width of one metre at its western end to 0.8 metres at the east. Seven sidestones remain in place, three to the north and four to the south, along with a backstone positioned just outside the gallery walls at the eastern end. A single jamb-like stone stands inside the western end of the south side, a detail noted by Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin in their 1982 survey of megalithic tombs across Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary. Two overlapping roofstones still cover the gallery, and traces of closely-set outer walling survive on the eastern and southern sides. There are also faint indications of a mound extending to the west and south, which would originally have enclosed and defined the whole structure. The overall picture is of a tomb that has lost some material over time but retains enough of its anatomy to be read with reasonable clarity.

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