Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Pollsharvoge, Co. Mayo

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Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic tomb – court tomb, Pollsharvoge, Co. Mayo

In the townland of Pollsharvoge in County Mayo, a court tomb sits in the landscape, largely unannounced and only lightly documented in the public record.

Court tombs are among the oldest megalithic monuments in Ireland, built by Neolithic farming communities roughly five to six thousand years ago. They take their name from a distinctive feature: a semicircular or oval forecourt formed by upright stones at the entrance, which opened onto one or more roofed gallery chambers where the dead were placed. They are found in considerable numbers across the north and west of Ireland, often on elevated ground or along ridgelines that would have been meaningful to the people who constructed them.

Pollsharvoge is a quiet townland, and the tomb there has not yet been the subject of widely available published detail. What is known is that the structure is classified as a court tomb, placing it within a tradition of communal burial that predates the pyramids by a considerable margin. These monuments were not simply graves; the open forecourt is thought to have served a ceremonial function, a space where the living gathered in relation to the dead. The specific condition, dimensions, and orientation of the Pollsharvoge example remain to be set out in a fuller public record.

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