Irish Megalithic Tombs

Ireland has a wealth of impressive historical monuments. In Ireland there are four types of Megalithic tombs: Court Cairns, Passage Tombs, Wedge tombs and Portal Dolmens.

Court Tombs

There are about 300 of these types of tombs in Ireland. These tombs have an open unroofed, east facing entrance court which leads into a number of chambers. There could be maybe four chambers in total. Each of these chambers can contain inhumations and cremated remains. The chambers on the inside are roofed by the method of corbelling. Orthostats {Huge standing upright stones} are put into position. Then reasonably flat rocks are placed on top of each of the two orthostats. Two more flat rocks are slid barely half - way over the preceding rocks. This continues until a pair of flat rocks nearly touch each other. A capstone is placed on top so the whole structure looks like a hut. Around these chambers is a reasonably low dry stone wall with orthostats at the extremity. These tombs are sometimes called a lobster - claw cairn. They generally average 23 - 24 metres. They are usually rectangular. They faced east towards the rising sun. So the soul met his/her creator. The general theme is that all the tombs face east.

The Passage TombsMany examples of this tomb exist in Ireland. Such as Carrowkeel, Co. Sligo, Loughchrew, Co. Meath and the Newgrange complex{Newgrange, Knowth & Dowth}, Co. Meath. The Tomb is a basic mound of sone and clay with one internal passage leading to the central cruicform chamber.

Portal Dolmens

There are 163 portal tombs in Ireland. The majority located in the northern half of the country. The tomb as a straight sided chamber often narrowed at the rear. The entrance is marked by tall portal stones. On top lays a huge single cap stone resting on the portal stones on the front and sloping at the rear where it rests on the backstone. In the majority of cases the tomb entrance faces the east towards the sunrise. THis is not always the case though as many tombs face different directions. Examples of Portal Tombs Kilmogue, Co. Kilkenny, Poulnabrone in the Burren, Co Clare and Knockeen, Co. Waterford.

Passage Tombs

There are many passage tombs in Ireland, Newgrange [1] , Knowth [2] , Dowth [3] , to name a few in one small area.

References

* [http://www.knowth.com/dowth.htm]
* [http://www.knowth.com/knowth.htm]
* [http://www.knowth.com/newgrange.htm] Most of my Information comes from the Shire Archaeology - Irish Megalithic Tombs.