irelandseye.com recommends Firefox for browsing. Click this link for a non-affiliated click-thru to get Firefox.

TOOME County Donegal

This neglected megalith lies near the northern end of Toome Lough below Trusklieve Mountain, about 10 miles south-by east of Dunloe. At the west end of a long cairn (unfortunately littered with domestic rubbish when last seen) is ‘Dermot and Grania’s Bed’, a collapsed dolmen immediately recognisable from the splendid pair of granite portal stones which taper gracefully to a height of 6 feet and have a doorstone set between them. The rectangular chamber is formed by two low sidestones and an endstone shaped like a gable. A slipped capstone lies inside the chamber.

The tomb faces east into the body of the cairn, at whose opposite end some 30 feet distant are the remains of a second tomb, which is in an even more collapsed state with only one surviving portal stone and a gallery constructed of very large stones. Other examples of two portal tombs contained in the same cairn include Kilclooney More about 5 miles south-west, and Ballyrenan, Co. Tyrone

Click here to buy the Appletree Press book from Amazon.co.uk. For more information click on: Ireland's Ancient Stones - A Megalithic Heritage by Kenneth McNally, published by Appletree Press.

[ Back to top ]

[ Home | Features | Culture | History | Travel ]