Images (9)
Fieldnotes (1)

Images

Image of Barracashlaun (Court Tomb) by ryaner

The jambstones between the second and third chambers of the eastern gallery.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Aug 17, 2021

Northern side of the middle chamber of the eastern gallery. The remains are messy and overgrown but are full of charm and mystery.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Aug 17, 2021

Stones at the rear of the eastern gallery.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Aug 17, 2021

Different angle here – sidestone on the left with two courses of slipped corbelling above it.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Aug 17, 2021

Much of the western tomb/gallery is still buried deeply in the cairn. This is showing chamber sidestones with courses of corbelling above them.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Aug 17, 2021

This is from the rear of the second chamber of the eastern gallery. The chamber sidestone at left has a large corbel above it.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Aug 17, 2021

The eastern gallery/tomb is three-chambered. The focus here is on the central chamber, the southern side of which is missing. The tall stone to the right is a jambstone – corbelling is in evidence in both the first and second chambers.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Aug 17, 2021

The eastern gallery entrance – the stone just left of centre is an entrance jambstone, the stone next to it the beginning of the southern arm of the court.

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Aug 17, 2021

Large court stone on the end of the northern arm of the eastern tomb. From here it was hard to tell what lay beyond...

Image credit: ryaner

ryaner Aug 17, 2021

Articles

Barracashlaun

Court Tomb

ryaner Sep 27, 2021

Deep in the middle of nowhere you never know what you might find. Research first before you leave, for the place can be treacherous, but don’t delve too deep, as revelation is the better part of the process. Park up as close as you can get and once agreement is reached, vault any obstacle and scour…

Sometimes the pin is dropped in the wrong place, anticipation and frustration in equal measure – it’s fucking ‘round here somewhere. Wretched, undulating semi-bog, thistly, rushy, dank… hazel scrub that seems to deter even the sheep. What am I looking for asks my mate. It’s a court tomb, or so they say. Maybe it’s been completely removed.

Limestone pavement is spied under wild ash, elder and hawthorn. A pincer movement, me down from the north, him up from the south, is this it? Here it is. The first sight is a large stone, outlying, probable part of the eastern court, laterally placed so maybe part of a jamb-like entrance into a sacred space, its smaller match hidden beneath the tangle of grass. This solitary stone is all that remains of the northern arm of the court.

Push deeper into the small glade – you know it’s there, nettles are nothing now. Huge jambstones signal the entrance into a three-chambered gallery, everything blocky, slab-like lumps of limestone, moss-covered. The southern wall of the first two chambers of the gallery has been removed. Massive slabs of corbelling sit precariously atop the northern wall. Covered by a spindly, splayed hazel tree, the third chamber is inaccessible, the jambs separating it from the middle chamber like sentinels.

Come out south and around the back and beyond the third chamber there’s more. Another tomb in fact, the south-western, double-chambered, baby bro of this dual court tomb set. Again there’s no southern wall – the floor of the gallery here is filled-in, deeply buried in the cairn. Substantial, tiered corbelled slabs remain on the northern side, here out in the open. Maybe there’s a court beyond, back in under the dense vegetation further west, or maybe there once was.

Barracashlaun (Barr an chaisleán?, top of the castle), western, wild, partially decrepit – go to google maps and see the quarry creep ever closer. The middle of somewhere approaches.