Images (8)
Fieldnotes (1)

Images

Image of Aughnagurgan (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

A guess: from left to right, a sidestone, a standing portal, a collapsing portal with a doorstone behind it and the capstone.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Sep 1, 2020

I really couldn’t make out which was which here.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Sep 1, 2020

Pity about all the utility poles.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Sep 1, 2020

Looking north. There is a quite vigorously flowing stream in the treeline in the near distance.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Sep 1, 2020

Almost a bullaun, but most likely natural, in the collapsed capstone.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Sep 1, 2020

Looking south-west. The hill in the distance is Mullyash in Co. Monaghan.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Sep 1, 2020

Looking west.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Sep 1, 2020

The stone in the foreground is a portal, I think.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Sep 1, 2020

Articles

Aughnagurgan

Portal Tomb

ryaner Sep 2, 2020

This is the tomb marked on the OS map. It’s in the second field in from the road and would have been quite a corker, were it still standing. I found it hard to interpret. Of the five remaining stones only two remain upright. These look like a portal at the north-east and a low sidetone. The collapsing stone at the south-west looks like the second portal but is too far away from the upright one to make a tomb entrance, and the intervening stone looks way out of place to have been a doorstone.

Having said all that, it would be hard to say that this is not a portal tomb. The large capstone and the positioning of the tomb beside a vigorous stream would lead one to that conclusion. The capstone has a natural mini-bullaun at its eastern end. The position of the tomb on a steepish slope is a bit strange, but the views to the west and south are impressive. Mullyash mountain is two kilometres to the south. The views to the east are blocked by the slope of the hill.