Getting excited about stones, that is. Well, it has been lately. Up until yesterday. Yesterday I visited a little known tomb in Donegal. When I looked at it I nearly wept with amazement. It's nothing special to look at as it's roofless & cairnless. However, look a little more closely and it suddenly becomes quite astounding and could easily blow away a few dating/timeline theories.

On first inspection the monument is court tomb. The archeaological inventory classes it as such, but does say that the rear chamber 'resembles a portal tomb'. Resembles? THE REAR CHAMBER IS(WAS) A PORTAL TOMB! The monument is a portal tomb that has been extended and turned into a court tomb, much in the same way that Five Wells was a portal tomb before it was a passage tomb. The probable reason that the inventory says it 'resembles a portal tomb' is that court tombs are thought to be a thousand years older than the portals. May be they should have a rethink! And at least make them contemporary.

If this wasn't a portal tomb first then it at least shows the development of court tombs into portal tombs in a way no other site can demonstrate, but I don't think this is the case.