Drumanone

Nearest town:
Boyle (4km ENE)
OS reference:
G7657302384
OS sheet:
33
Latitude:
53° 58' 12.61 N
Longitude:
8° 21' 25.29 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Drumanone (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

Drumanone was satisfyingly larger than I had realised, the G man included for scale.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner May 24, 2019
Image of Drumanone (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

It’s suggested that the capstone has slipped backwards somewhat off the portals, but if so, it would have to have been way forward of it’s present position as neither of the sidestones, both now inward facing, are over a metre tall and both the portal and the doorstone are over 2 metres tall.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner May 24, 2019
Image of Drumanone (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

The capstone is about 4 metres square, and ranges from a metre to .4 of a metre thick.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner May 24, 2019
Image of Drumanone (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

The capstone is hanging in there, literally – there’s a ridge, caused by flaking, on the underside and this is caught on the northern sidestone, which in turn is supported by an old piece of rail track.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner May 24, 2019
Image of Drumanone (Portal Tomb) by muller

Nice spot to park and walk, look left and right at the rail crossing !

Image credit: tmulraney
muller
muller Nov 3, 2012
Image of Drumanone (Portal Tomb) by Nucleus

Love the contrast between ancient and modern

Image credit: Uwe Häberle 05/2010
Nucleus
Nucleus Jun 9, 2010

Articles

Drumanone

bogman
bogman Jun 10, 2013

Correct GPS co-ordinates for Drumanone are
53.97019 N
08.35432 W

Otherwise you will find yourself at the other side of the railway line

Drumanone

Nucleus
Nucleus Jul 12, 2010

This gem is really easy to get to, if you disregard the fact that you have to cross a railway line. To reach the site, drive on the R294 from Boyle to Cloonloogh. Around 2.5km after you leave Boyle you come to a railway underpass, where the R295 bends right. Another 400m later you see a house on the right side, where you can easily park you car. Walk the farm track for about 100m and you reach two gates that help to safely cross the railway line. Be warned, as we visited the site, there were two trains that passed by.

This is really a magnificent portal tomb with a huge capstone, that sits in a threateningly angle on two massive portal stones. I’m not sure, if the capstone is in its original position, but there is now a supporting pillar, that stabilizes the whole structure. I only wonder why this site is not more mentioned in guidebooks of this area, because it really deserves more attention.

If you are in this area, I definitely recommend visiting this tomb!

Visited May 2010

Folklore

Drumanone
Portal Tomb
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Aug 14, 2020

My grandfather James Carroll who lives in Spa Boyle told me the following story about the Druids altar. There is a Druids altar in Tinnecara to the north side of the railway in Thomas Ballintinels land. The altar is made of three large stones two uprights and one over head. Each stone weighs about ten tons weight. The druids used to come home from Knockadoo and swim across Lough Gara to worship their god at this altar.

Recorded as part of the Schools Collection in the 1930s, and online now at Duchas.ie.

Folklore

Drumanone
Portal Tomb
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jan 21, 2007

I think this must be the right site for this story: (it needs to be near Boyle, Roscommon, and near the site of a mill near the ‘issue of the river from the lake’). Please correct me if not.

At a short distance to the north of this mill, on the right hand side of the road going towards the lake, and not far off it, stands one the largest cromlechs that I have seen in Ireland. The sloping upper stone is fifteen feet long by eleven broad; its greatest thickness two feet six inches, and its average thickness might perhaps be safely set down at eighteen inches. It is now supported by four upright stones, but, once, had a fifth. To this, the neighbouring miller, in an evil hour, took a fancy, judging it would make an admirable stone for his mill; and with much difficulty and labour he removed it from its place; but just as the operation was on the point of being completed, the stone, to the amazement and terror of the bystanders, flew into a thousand pieces; an occurence which was interpreted as a judgement upon the miller for his audacious violation of this sacred work of antiquity. The people still look upon the cromlechs with a degree of respect, if not veneration, althought they have no notion of their origin, or of the purposes to which they were destined.

p278 in ‘A Statistical Survey of the County of Roscommon’ by Isaac Weld (1832). You can read it courtesy of Google Books, here.

Sites within 20km of Drumanone

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