ryaner

Two court tombs, back to back but 5 metres apart, unlike Aghanaglack, a dual court tomb with only a stone separating the galleries. This place is all about place. Yes there’s the tombs, the northern one of which is like no other, but it’s where they’re at is where it’s at.

From Manorhamilton, a 5 minute drive to a gate, and a further minute along a track at the side of some forestry and it all opens up. The track remains drivable past the tombs but I parked just before and above them. Wild Irish peatland, in places eroded down to the limestone pavement, and views for miles all around. Benbo to the west is dominant, north-west into Sligo you can see Truskmore and Tievebaun. The plateau that you’re on rises to the south and it looks bleak in that direction forever.

I had to come here after reading Anthony Weir’s description of the tombs. It was their situation that captivated me however. The wrecks of both tombs take patience to work out. Weir says 2 chambers in the main gallery with 6 subsidiary chambers set into the cairn at the back of the northern tomb.
The southern tomb is less complex with a 2-chambered gallery. Both tombs have some remains of their courts.

I spent most of my time here just wandering about the area, over towards the old farmhouse, marvelling at the formations of the limestone, parts of which are crowned with half a metre of peat. At the end of it all I didn’t want to leave. A great spot to camp out in I’d say, though pegging the tent down might be difficult in this terrain. Wonderful place.

A stone pair, looking like a classic male/female combination, the male of which is now falling over like some aul-fella, held up by a small group of trees. The female is a blocky obelisk. I couldn’t get closer due to the river but both stones are close to 2 metres high.

I was in the area and had to stop by to one of my favourite sites in Ireland. I’d been using Anthony Weir’s Early Ireland – A Field Guide and Estyn Evans’s Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland – A Guide and both mention that the site is important and may well date back to the mesolithic. Leaving that to one side, this much later stone deserves some sort of care and attention. I hadn’t planned on coming here and wished I’d brought some secateurs. No-one in authority seems to care for these stones. There were offerings in each of the bullauns under the cursing stones. Fair enough – maybe it’s left to us to clean up the site, those who believe that these places are worth looking after. Alas, these stones are on private land and I’m not qualified to caretake them. I wish I lived closer to here.

The Donegal inventory has this as unclassifed, gives the wrong co-ordinates and has a description that I can’t recognise from what I saw. So maybe I was at the wrong place – well, not according to the OS map, Sheet 17.
There are 3 remaining stones that have the character of stones used in portal tombs but they could be the remains of one of the other classifications. I was on my way somewhere else when I stopped by here.

There are 5 megalithic tombs marked on OS sheet 16 in this part of north county Leitrim, all within a distance of 300 metres of each other, so I believe this merits the megalithic cemetery tag. I don’t have the Leitrim Inventory so I’m guessing on 2 of the tombs, one I couldn’t get close to, the other having very scant remains. By my estimation there are 3 wedges and 2 courts.
(It’s worth mentioning that a local archaeologist told me that there may be more tombs in the vicinity and that I could see other tomb-like structures from a distance but didn’t brave the bullocks in the fields)
Tomb 1 is the best preserved, a Burren-esque wedge tomb. Tomb 2 is what I believe to be a very ruined and overgrown court tomb. 3 is a collapsed Burren-esque wedge, 4 a reasonably preserved court (I couldn’t get close but its gallery seems to be extant) and 5 a very ruined wedge.
I didn’t stick around very long as the usual unfriendly Beware of the Bull(shit) sign was up.