| MONUMENT OF THE MONTH |
MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS
OF IRELAND.COM
| CO-ORDINATES 53 50’ 49.48”N…7 36’ 1.3”W |
| MAY 2012 |
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| AGHNACLIFF PORTAL TOMB, COUNTY LONGFORD |
| This fantastic portal tomb, marked on the Historic map as 'Cromlech', is located 100m south of a small stream that feeds into Loch Gamhna to the east and about 300m ENE of Aghnacliff church. The tomb, aligned N - S, has a small chamber which is bounded by a pair of matching side-stones, 1.2m in height, 1.6m in width and 0.60m in depth. These support a small capstone measuring 1.7m in length, 2.2m in width and 1.2m in depth. The front edge of the larger, upper capstone, measuring 3.2m in length, 2.3m in width and 1.5m in depth, is supported by a single, remaining portal stone which measures 2m in height, 1,1m in width and 1m in depth and the lower capstone. There is no door-stone or back-stone present. Aghnacliff or Aughnacliffe comes from the Gaelic 'Achadh na Cloiche' which means "Field of the Stones". In his book, “The Dolmens of Ireland” (1897) Vol. I (p. 312), William Copeland Borlase only gives a short account of this tomb. He said: “In the town-land of Grassyard, and Parish of Granard, was a dolmen marked in OSM as, Dermot and Granids Cave, Carricknahoo. It is about half a mile N. of the Moat of Granard”. Unfortunately, Borlase did not include a drawing of the portal tomb. |
