Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Carrig, Co. Wicklow
Co. Wicklow |
Megalithic Tombs
On the lower western slopes of Lugnagun, overlooking the wide expanse of Blessington Reservoir, a prehistoric tomb sits quietly among a cluster of related ancient monuments.
It is a wedge tomb, one of the most numerous megalithic tomb types in Ireland, built roughly four to five thousand years ago during the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age. The form is distinctive: a long stone gallery, narrowing slightly from back to front like a wedge, typically oriented so that the wider entrance faces the setting sun in the south-west. This example follows that convention closely, its entrance directed south-west and downslope, with the ground rising more gently behind it.
The tomb is reasonably well preserved. The rectangular gallery measures six metres long by one metre wide, defined by upright sidestones and flanked on either side by an outer wall or stone setting, a feature characteristic of the type. At the south-western end, a portico, a kind of antechamber measuring roughly 1.8 metres across, is separated from the main gallery by two substantial jambstones with a line of smaller stones between them, apparently functioning as a sill. A single façade stone survives at the south-eastern side of the entrance, and the kerb, the low stone edging that defines the boundary of the cairn, remains largely intact along the northern side. The cairn itself is oval, measuring 10.5 metres by 8.8 metres. A scatter of flat slabs lying on the ground beyond the western end of the gallery may be roof-stones that have slipped or collapsed over the millennia. This tomb does not stand alone; it forms part of a complex of at least five recorded prehistoric sites in the same area, suggesting that this hillside was a place of sustained significance to the communities who shaped it.