Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Ballynacloghy, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Megalithic Tombs
About a hundred metres from the shore of Leckanaloy Creek, in a shallow coastal valley in Connemara, a Neolithic portal tomb sits in a state of partial collapse that somehow makes it feel more present rather than less.
One of its two portal-stones leans markedly outwards, and the large roofstone that once capped the chamber has shifted from its position and now lies across the interior. Portal tombs, sometimes called dolmens, are among the oldest surviving built structures in Ireland, typically consisting of two upright portal-stones at the entrance, a backstone, and one or more capstones, the whole assembly once understood to mark the burial or commemoration of the dead. This one is small even by the modest standards of the type: the chamber measures roughly 2.5 metres in length and 1.8 metres in width, aligned roughly east-south-east to west-north-west.
When archaeologists Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin recorded the tomb as part of their comprehensive Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, published in 1972, they noted the two portal-stones at the east end, a backstone to the west, and a single north sidestone, with the south portal already leaning out of true. Earlier investigations had yielded finds from inside the chamber: fragments of cremated bone and sherds of coarse pottery, the kind of material that places a structure firmly in the Neolithic or early Bronze Age tradition of mortuary practice. A small earthen enclosure, measuring about three metres by two and a half, abuts the north side of the tomb, a subtle feature that might easily be missed but suggests the monument was once embedded in a slightly more elaborate ceremonial or funerary landscape. These details were further discussed by John Waddell in 1977, contributing to a picture of a site that, despite its modest scale and damaged condition, retains genuine archaeological significance.