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Portal Tomb
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We visited these on our second visit to Glencolmcille, after going back to Cloghanmore (and last full day of the wonderful week in Donegal) . Our first attempt had been unsuccessful as we weren’t able to find them. This time we asked in the visitors centre/gift shop and were given a little hand drawn map. Leaving Glencolmcille on the road to Malinbeg just over a bridge we turned right up a narrow road to some farms (a house on this turning had a rather impressive garden ornament in the shape of a small portal tomb). The six great portal tombs were not in such good condition – they span two narrow fields both of which had farm animals in them. The three in the first field had three nursing cows with their off-spring standing close by. The cows became agitated by our presence at the gate so we decided to not go in the field. All three of these enormous tombs were unrestored and partially fallen. The other three tombs were in a similar state although the largest one was partially restored with some supporting stonework – also partly in the garden of a nearby house. The second field had a ram and ewe standing guard – again we erred on the side of caution and didn’t enter the field.
This short passage is taken from “Gleancholmcille – A guide to 5000 years of history in stone” by Michael Herity:
“ … towards 2000BC, Gleancholmcille was lived in by a later group of stone age farms with a rather different style of tomb building. Their monuments are portal tombs. This type is well represented near Gleancholmcille – on the north side of the valley behind the school and again across the valley to the of Cloghanmore. At the west end of Malin More valley, six portal tombs arranged in a line are part of one huge, unusual monument, probably 90m long originally”
Edit: Have belatedly posted a photo of a beautiful white quartz stone which incorporated into the field wall by the Malin More tombs. Given the tombs are in a ruinous state I do wonder if this stone was taken from one of them?
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Posted by tjj
7th June 2016ce
Edited 19th July 2016ce
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