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Mystery digger ruins 5,000-year-old dolmen

La Hougue de Vinde dolmen near Noirmont has been seriously damaged after someone dug holes all over the 5,000 year old historical site.

A man was seen illegally using a metal detector and a trowel on the ancient site, prompting the island’s heritage organisations to appeal to the public to help protect them.

After an islander reported the incident, Olga Finch, Jersey Heritage’s Curator ofArchaeology, inspected the site. She confirmed that it had been seriously damaged, finding ‘backfilled’ metal detecting holes in the centre of the chamber, and targeted digging all over the dolmen, particularly in the earthen banks and at the base of the orthostats (upright stones).

More: bailiwickexpress.com/jsy/news/5000-year-old-dolmen-seriously-damage/?fbclid=IwAR0s4vziAhnZCYVZKJRwR6JIayfx90b4CuOg2mLUEYsegamACx1iajNLAFQ#.XIxalIXeyFr

Image of Kilnameel (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Kilnameel

Court Tomb

The tall stone on the left is odd, protruding as it does prominently above any of the other stones that make up the gallery walls. It’s positioning at a right angle makes it probably a jambstone, or maybe part of a blocking wall between two separate galleries of a dual court tomb.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Kilnameel (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Kilnameel

Court Tomb

Again at the back of the gallery (it was the least overgrown and hence the easiest to photograph). The line of the gallery is easy to see starting with the stone immediately to the right, with the jambstone fairly obviously at right angles to the wall. There is still quite a lot remaining, but a lot is gone too.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Kilnameel (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Kilnameel

Court Tomb

Looking over the entrance stones down the length of the gallery, segmented into five separate chambers, all in varying degrees of preservation.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Kilnameel (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Kilnameel

Court Tomb

This is either the back of a five chambered court tomb, or the first chamber of a back-to-back dual court tomb (or maybe the second, the making of the lane to the left having destroyed at least the court and possibly the first chamber).

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Kilnameel (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Kilnameel

Court Tomb

Left is the rubble of the wall that bounds the lane, straight ahead west the tomb begins to emerge. Just as well we got here in late February – another couple of months growth and it would be invisible.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Moneygashel (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

Moneygashel

Portal Tomb

The remaining portal rather spectacularly props up the smaller section of the split capstone. The old archaeologists would have described the whole thing as ‘much deranged’.

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Image of Moneygashel (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

Moneygashel

Portal Tomb

This is what seems like the front when you first approach but is actually the north side of the tomb. The lintel and the drystone walling that it spans are both modern. The capstone, under the immense pressure of its own weight, is also fracturing on the perpendicular.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Moneygashel (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

Moneygashel

Portal Tomb

The fracture in the capstone is quite severe, and seems to have happened a very long time ago given the weathering along the broken edges.

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Image of Legalough (Enclosure) by ryaner

Legalough

Enclosure

Enclosure/habitation site with Legalough in the distance. The border runs right through the middle of the lake, on the left Fermanagh and on the right Cavan. We visited two other tombs over that direction, one in each county, landscape and monuments mocking political notions.

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Image of Legalough (Enclosure) by ryaner

Legalough

Enclosure

Enclosure/habitation site on the peak of the ridge that has the wedge and court tombs, about 30 metres east of the wedge. Did the tomb builders live here?

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Image of Legalough (Wedge Tomb) by ryaner

Legalough

Wedge Tomb

Possible facade stone in the foreground looking down along double walling on the east side of the tomb, with gallery to the left.

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Image of Legalough (Court Tomb) by ryaner

Legalough

Court Tomb

Court stones on the southern arm of the court. These, the entrance jambs, the sillstone and a few scattered remains of the cairn are all that’s left. Makes you wonder why they left anything at all.

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Image of Burren (E) (Wedge Tomb) by ryaner

Burren (E)

Wedge Tomb

There’s a new wooden walkway up to this most fantastic of wedge tombs, now part of the Cavan Burren Park, “...widely recognised as one of the finest prehistoric relict landscapes in Ireland.”

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Image of Burren (E) (Wedge Tomb) by ryaner

Burren (E)

Wedge Tomb

A pad stone, propping up one of the huge roofstones and keeping it perpendicular. How it’s stayed that way for thousand of years is anyone’s guess.

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Image of Burren (Central) (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

Burren (Central)

Portal Tomb

Calf House dolmen is viewed along the track in the middle distance. On top of the far hill is the ruined Tullygobban wedge tomb. The viewing point is an altered glacial erratic. All three are in a line which ultimately points at Cuilcagh mountain, behind the viewer here (invisible on the day due to mist). This alignment is said to be almost certainly deliberate.

Image credit: ryaner
Image of Burren (Central) (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

Burren (Central)

Portal Tomb

The capstone of the Calf Field dolmen is a massive slab of limestone 5 metres, by 4.2 metres and varying between .2 and .6 of a metre thick, presumably prised up out of the ground somewhere close by. Its dimensions and weight would lead one to the conclusion that it was never raised fully off the ground, else how did it survive intact a sudden collapse?

Image credit: ryaner