Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Kilmashogue, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin |
Megalithic Tombs
One upright stone, almost square in section and standing 2.
5 metres tall, is doing most of the work of announcing that something ancient is here. Around it, the rest of a portal tomb, a type of megalithic monument typically consisting of two tall portal stones and a large capstone tilted over a burial chamber, has long since given way. The roofstone lies flat across the chamber, its dimensions still measurable: 3.8 metres long, 2.65 metres wide, and 0.7 metres deep. It is collapse as a kind of preservation, the whole structure pressed into the pasture like a slow-motion record of thousands of years.
The tomb sits on gently sloping ground in the grounds of Larch Hill, near the valley bottom to the west of Kilmashogue Mountain in County Dublin. The chamber faces uphill to the east, which is a common orientation for portal tombs, though the reasoning behind it remains debated among archaeologists. Several other large stones lie scattered close to the structural remains. Writing in 1897, the antiquarian W. C. Borlase recorded a circle of stones surrounding the monument, but subsequent investigators, including Turner in 1983, found no trace of it. Whether it was removed, buried, or simply misrecorded is unclear. Earlier references in 1914 and a survey by Price in 1940 also document the site, placing it within a modest but consistent body of antiquarian attention across the twentieth century.
Larch Hill itself is a scouting activity centre, so access to the grounds is worth confirming before visiting. The tomb occupies a relatively unassuming spot on pasture land, and without prior knowledge it would be easy to pass the collapsed stones without registering their significance. The single standing portal stone is the clearest landmark. The surrounding landscape, with Kilmashogue Mountain rising to the east, gives useful orientation, and the chamber's eastward-facing aspect means that the alignment becomes easier to read once you are standing beside the surviving portal stone and looking uphill.
