Site Type: Passage Tomb
Irish Grid Ref: G6630333908
Location: Link to Bing Maps
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| Tomb 7 |
Description:
The passage tomb is described on Archaeology.ie as follows;
"Carrowmore (P7) OS 14:15:1 (47-0 10-3). "Dolmen" OD 100-200 G663 339
A kerb, up to 14m across, of thirty-three boulders, some displaced, surrounds a polygonal chamber open to the E consisting of a backstone at the W, two sidestones at the N and three at the S. The easternmost upright at the N side stands forward of a large roofstone which overlies the other uprights though supported only on three of them. Wood-Martin (1885-6; 1888) recovered bone fragments, among which were the tooth of a young pig, complete and partial remains of shells and a flint flake. Burenhult's excavation (Burenhult 1980a; 1984) revealed part of an inner circle of stones at the NW. Sockets remained of two stones that had stood one at either side of and in front of the existing entrance to the chamber. The chamber floor had been greatly disturbed but cremation deposits were found in four corners, and these contained pieces of burnt sea-shells, charcoal and in one case piece of an antler pin. Thirteen cremation deposits were found outside the chamber and finds from these included sea-shells, pieces of chert waste, eleven fragments of antler pins, a stone ball and three pounding stones. The antler pin with one of the cremations in the chamber and a barbed-and-tanged flint arrowhead from a secondary burial within the circle were the only artifacts found in undisturbed positions. A posthole in the chamber, considered primary by the excavator, yielded a radiocarbon date of 3290+/-80b.c (Lu-1441) but Caulfield (1983, 207-8) has questioned his interpretation of its place in the construction sequence."
I came across this alignment in 2016 with the publication of Dr Frank Prendergast's paper 'Interpreting megalithic tomb orientations and siting within broader cultural contexts' Dr Prendergast uses a statistical analysis of all the passage tombs in Ireland to conclude that 24 of them have significant astronomical alignments.
Links to photographs;
More pictures & information on Martin Byrne's website
Links for further information;
