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tjj T
tjj Feb 18, 2013 16:00:07
Replying to bawn79

I posted a news item back in 2010 about the Tirnony Portal tomb. The capstone had fallen so the Northern Ireland Environment Agency planned to have the site excavated before restoring the monument. The Megalithic Monuments of Ireland Facebook page has posted something about the situation along with photos. Wondered if anyone knew when reconstruction will take place.

Extract from MMI facebook post:
Having had the great pleasure of visiting the many wonderful megalithic monuments in the north of Ireland, over many decades, I was shocked when a friend visiting Tirnony Portal Tomb (SMR Number LDY 036:010) recently, found the capstone has not been replaced nearly 2 years after the completion of excavations.

C CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam Feb 18, 2013 21:24:54
Replying to tjj

Reply on Facebook from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency:

Hi everyone. Many thanks for your interest in Tirnony Dolmen. As you say it is a wonderful site and a great example of a portal tomb in an attractive rural setting. Since the partial collapse of the tomb early 2010, we have been working on developing a scheme to reconstruct the tomb to match as closely as possible the condition of the site prior to collapse. Essentially we want it to look as it did in your 2009 photo. The archaeological excavation carried out later in 2010 was part of the process of investigating the site to provide information to inform our reconstruction.

As you can imagine, putting the tomb back together is akin to a complex 3D puzzle, involving large irregularly shaped, and in some cases broken, pieces of stone. In addition we want to ensure that any engineering solution creates as little disturbance as possible and does not visually detract from the monument and its setting. We are now in the final stages of designing the reconstruction of the tomb and we will soon be appointing a contractor to undertake the works. All being well, it is hoped that the tomb reconstruction will take place later this year. I hope that you will be able to enjoy the reinstated tomb when you next visit the site.