Megalithic tomb, Killeen, Co. Mayo

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Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic tomb, Killeen, Co. Mayo

In the south-east corner of a pasture field in Killeen, County Mayo, a low mound of stones sits quietly in the grass, easily mistaken for a field clearance heap or a natural quirk of the ground.

It is neither. The structure is a megalithic tomb, possibly several thousand years old, though its precise type has not been established, which in itself sets it apart. Most megalithic tombs in Ireland fall into recognised categories, such as portal tombs, court tombs, passage tombs, or wedge tombs, each with its own architectural logic. This one resists that tidiness.

The mound, or cairn, measures roughly 12.6 metres from east to west and 5.4 metres across, rising to between 0.4 and 0.8 metres above the surrounding ground. It is built from small and medium-sized stones, with a few larger ones visible, and sits on a westward-facing slope of a gentle natural rise. A cairn of this kind would originally have covered and protected a burial chamber beneath, though what lies below the accumulated sod here has not been formally investigated. What makes the structure particularly striking is a single upright slab at its western end, 1.3 metres long and 0.4 metres thick, its long axis running north to south, protruding just 0.3 metres above the top of the cairn. This stone may be an orthostat, meaning one of the large structural uprights used in megalithic construction to form the walls or entrance of a chamber. Whether it stands where it was originally placed, or has shifted over the centuries, is not certain, but its presence suggests the cairn is more than a casual accumulation.

Much of the cairn is now under grass, and the eastern end is largely hidden by brambles and hawthorn. The site sits in an ordinary working field, the kind of landscape that contains these survivals without advertising them.

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Pete F
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