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The low eastern arc of the henge – the road up to the Hill of Tara is to the left.
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Zoomed in a bit through the gate. Impressive pice of carving all the same.
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No remedial changes since I last checked here. It’s actually gotten worse.
Travelling around megalithic Ireland a couple or three questions of the imagined tomb-wreckers have frequently arisen: If you’re going to destroy one of these ancient sites, why not obliterate and eradicate it totally? Why leave the scant remnants, the vague outline, of what once was? Is it because mid-destruction you got visited by some phantom in your bed that made you desist? In the end, it’s possible that you got from here what you came for and sated you said fuckit, leave what’s left and who cares? It’s always puzzling – the disrespect shown is sometimes total, and those sites are lost forever, but it’s at places like here in Ravensdale where enough remains to intrigue and tantalise.
I’ll quote in full the description from the Louth Inventory (copyright Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991): “This court-tomb has suffered considerable damage by blasting, and drill holes for dynamite are visible in a number of shattered stones. It consists of a roughly trapezoidal cairn orientated NNE-SSW, incorporating at its N end the inner end of a broad court and the scant remains of a gallery. The N limit of the court is defined by a facade stone at the W, indicating overall court dimensions of about 5.5m deep by 7m wide. Eight stones mark the inner end of the court, four at the W and three at the E. Two of these form the entrance jambs to the gallery which had at least two chambers. The N chamber 3m long and about 1.5m wide, is delimited by two side stones at the W and one at the E. This is separated from the rest of the gallery by a pair of jambs. Beyond these the continuation of the gallery is represented by a single orthostat at the E side and there is no back stone. A field fence curves around the N and W sides of the monument.”
Blasting? Dynamite? So post 1866 then, and more likely well into the 20th century. We’ve heard of this before, in Carrowkeel, but there’s doubts about that. There it was said to be part of the excavation, far-fetched maybe; here it seems that it was simple destruction and the re-use of the stones and antiquarian niceties be-damned. And yet, as mentioned above, they left us what’s here, unprotected as it is. Bizarre.
The small charms of the court with its almost symmetrical arms; the entrance jambs; behind those their chamber segmenting twins, all speak of a classic multi-chambered gallery, unmistakably an ancient burial place. Almost total wreckage of court tombs is quite common in North Louth and the Cooley peninsula it seems. Contrast that with the near complete tombs Ballymacdermot, Clontygora and Annaghmare in neighbouring county Armagh. I’ve been around these parts a lot in the last few years but had always been put off by that Inventory note but I have to say I’m glad to have finally bit the bullet. It’s not that bad of a site compared to others around, just that you wish they hadn’t trashed the place so badly.
A zoom shot from the passage entrance with the Loughcrew Hills visible on the horizon.
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Leaving Calliagh Berra’s house in the blinding, low, early autumn sun.
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Crude basin-stone in the foreground left. There’s another in front of the recess at the back of the chamber visible in the brightness here.
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Sun shining in the neck of the passage at 6pm on September 17, 2024 – a portent of what’s to come at this winter solstice sunset aligned monument.
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The passage entrance with its ever elegant lintel. It gets clambered on regularly and looks a tad precarious in this shot.
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Eastern courtstone. See previous image for it’s twin on the western side.
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Western courtstone. See next image for it’s twin on the eastern side.
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Separating jambstones between the first and second chambers looking SSW. Most of the chamber/gallery sidestones have been removed.
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Gallery entrance jambs flanked by matching court stones. The gallery itself is ruined with the separating jambstones between the first and second chambers prominent.
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Again looking towards the NNE, this time over the ruined remains of the 2- or 3-chambered gallery.
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Oriented NNE-SSW, this is from the SSW at the back of the tomb. Most of the stones in the foreground here are unsocketed and broken remains of the original construction.
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South towards Carlingford Lough with the east end of the Cooley peninsula in Co. Louth in the distance.
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No trace of a cairn or court remains, just a long three-chambered gallery, and I guess we should be grateful for that.
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No court exists here now – these are the entrance jambs to the three-chambered gallery.
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Across the chamber looking out through the portals, blinded by the light.
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A metre and a half tall and about 40 metres from the shoreline at the easternmost tip of the Cooley peninsula.
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Over the mound and across the mouth of Carlingford Lough towards the magnificent Mournes.
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There’s not much positive to say here, except that I’m glad I made the effort. The main remains of the tomb, a photo of which can be seen in the Archaeological Survey of County Louth, are in danger of being lost forever in a dense tangle of hazel, bramble and scrub vegetation.
The plan in the above mentioned book shows an interesting court tomb, with a main single-chambered gallery and three lateral chambers, these last being the only remains in any way visible. Shame really, and not unexpected, but disappointing all the same.
Stones of another of the lateral chambers, this at the south-west end of the tomb.
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The stones at the foreground left are part of one of three lateral chambers towards the rear of the tomb, the main remains of which are completely inundated by dense vegetation and are in danger of being lost forever.
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The rear of the tomb, narrowed to about a metre and a half.
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The segmenting jambs between the second chamber and the small gap, before the tomb continues on to the third, narrow and longest of the three chambers.
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The segmenting jambs between the first and second chambers.
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The stones of the tomb are mostly rough-hewn and blocky and could almost be described as ugly.
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The tomb is aligned north-east/south-west with the court at the north-east end. This looks over the monument south-west towards Dundalk Bay.
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A farmer in Co Westmeath has said he thought 4,000-year-old Early Bronze Age axeheads found in his field were old horse ploughs, or scrap.
Thomas Dunne said the discovery was made after a piece of machinery fell off during silage cutting on his field in Coralstown.
The National Museum of Ireland issued an appeal earlier this month, after the axeheads were sent anonymously to the museum at the end of June.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Philip Boucher Hayes, Mr Dunne said: “We were cutting silage in a field when I felt a piece of steel come off the mower.
“We were afraid it would go into something else, so we got a man with metal detector to go and look for it.
“He found these under a row of beech trees. “We thought they were just bits of old horse ploughs or scrap. We could have thrown them back into the ditch the very same!”
The National Museum of Ireland has issued an appeal after 4,000-year-old Early Bronze Age axeheads were sent anonymously to the museum at the end of June.
The sender had fashioned packaging from a cardboard box of Flahavans Flapjacks with foam inserts inside cut to the exact size of the axeheads, each one smaller than the palm of a person’s hand.
They were accompanied by a letter stating they were discovered in the Westmeath area using a metal detector.
The museum has dated the axeheads to around 2150-2000 BC.
The sender said they wished for the axeheads to be conserved by the Museum but did not provide any contact details or further specifics.
The museum said the axeheads were “thoughtfully packed in foam cut-outs and cardboard, ensuring their safe arrival.”
More: rte.ie/news/2024/0713/1459683-national-museum-axeheads/
From the National Museum:
museum.ie/en-IE/News/Appeal-for-information-about-Bronze-Age-Axeheads-F
The southern side of the heather-covered cairn showing some exposed cairn material.
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Herity reckons this is another passage tomb on Slievenamuck Hill.
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