Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Termon, Co. Clare

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Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic tomb – wedge tomb, Termon, Co. Clare

A prehistoric tomb that went unrecorded until 2017 sits quietly on the limestone pavement at Termon in County Clare, its stones so thoroughly collapsed and reused over the millennia that it could easily be passed off as a tumble of field debris.

What gives it away, to a trained eye, is the geometry: a roughly rectangular footprint measuring approximately three metres north to south and five metres east to west, and one large upright orthostat, the term for a standing slab used in megalithic construction, still holding its position along the eastern side. That single stone, over two and a half metres long and still standing to a height of 0.85 metres, is the clearest surviving indicator that this was once a wedge tomb, a type of Neolithic or early Bronze Age burial monument characterised by a tapering stone-walled gallery, typically orientated with its wider end facing west.

The monument was identified in 2017 by Dr Sharon Parr, Scientific Officer of the Burren Programme, working across the limestone-rich landscape of this part of Clare that has long been known for its concentration of prehistoric remains. The structure has suffered considerably over time. Four parallel orthostats along what was likely the western side have fallen inward toward the east, and a possible backstone on the northern side has also collapsed. A broad earthfast stone lies just to the west of the main upright. Adding a further layer of history to the site, a low drystone wall, the kind used in farming, forms a right angle against the large eastern orthostat at its northern end. This wall may well have been built as a lamb fold or small shelter, with the ancient megalith pressed into service as a convenient ready-made wall. It is a small but telling detail: the Burren's farmers, like farmers elsewhere, were pragmatic about the old stones around them.

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