Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Baur, Co. Clare

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Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic tomb – wedge tomb, Baur, Co. Clare

Two bulky limestone slabs rising from rough pasture on a broad plateau in County Clare are all that remain, or at least all that is immediately visible, of what may once have been a wedge tomb, one of the most numerous megalithic monument types in Ireland.

Wedge tombs are prehistoric stone-built burial chambers, so called because their gallery is typically wider and higher at one end than the other, tapering like a wedge towards the rear. This example follows that pattern loosely: the two parallel slabs, aligned roughly northeast to southwest, stand 1.4 metres apart at the southwestern end and widen slightly to 1.8 metres at the northeastern end.

The monument sits within a multiperiod field system, meaning the landscape around it has been divided, worked, and reorganised by successive generations across a long span of time. The slabs themselves are substantial, the southeastern one measuring 1.7 metres long and 0.7 metres high, the northwestern somewhat smaller at 1.3 metres long and 0.45 metres high. Between them, closer to the northeastern end, lies a partly grass-covered concentration of smaller stones, the kind of detail that often signals collapsed or buried structural material rather than random scatter. The qualification of "possible" wedge tomb is significant; without excavation, it is difficult to confirm whether what survives represents a genuine megalithic chamber or a much-reduced remnant of one, and the classification remains tentative.

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