Overview
About this site
Overview
The boulder burial of Achonry is a megalithic monument in the small village of Achonry (Irish Achadh Conaire), north-east of Tubbercurry (Irish Tobar an Choire), in County Sligo, Ireland. The catalogue gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 3000 BCE.
It was marked "Giants Grave" on Ordnance Survey maps in 1909. The site is not developed for tourism and lies among cow pastures.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Achonry
The structure consists of three large, irregularly shaped boulders lying flat on the ground, with an oval capstone above them.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boulder Burial von AchonryCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boulder Burial von AchonryCC BY-SA 4.0
The structure consists of three large, irregularly shaped boulders lying flat on the ground, with an oval capstone above them. The two southern lower boulders measure about 2.15 × 2.0 m with a thickness of about 70 cm, and about 2.25 × 1.6 m with a thickness of about 90 cm. The largest block, to the north, measures 2.7 × 2.7 m with a thickness of 70 cm. A pass stone (0.35 × 0.25 × 0.2 m) lies between the northern boulder and the capstone.
The capstone measures 3.55 × 2.55 m and is 1.4 m thick in the north and 0.5 m thick in the south. The whole stone formation has a diameter of about 5.0 m and is 2.3 m high.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boulder Burial von AchonryCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boulder Burial von AchonryCC BY-SA 4.0
The site lies near the former St Crumnathy's Cathedral of the Church of Ireland.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boulder Burial von AchonryCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boulder Burial von AchonryCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument was described archaeologically by, among others, the Irish archaeologist Seán Ó Nualláin while he worked for the Ordnance Survey. He interprets the megalithic structure as a boulder burial, although this type of dolmen occurs mainly in the south of Ireland. His argument rests partly on a similar monument at Clogher, about 17 km away, and on the Boulder Tomb at Burren, a townland in County Cavan.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Irish portal tombs
Ireland has about 172 dolmens, a form of single-chamber portal tomb, and they are among the best known monuments of the Neolithic farmers who built them more than five thousand years ago. Poulnabrone dolmen in the Burren, County Clare, is the best known: three portal stones carry a heavy horizontal capstone, and it stands on one of the highest points of an unusual limestone, or karst, landscape formed some 350 million years ago. It dates to the early Neolithic, with estimates between 3800 and 3200 BCE. The name Poll na Brón means "hole of the quernstone".
Brownshill Dolmen, three kilometres east of Carlow, is a very large portal tomb with three large uprights; its capstone is estimated to weigh 150 tonnes and is reputed to be the heaviest in Europe. It was built between 4000 and 3000 BCE and is a National Monument. These dolmens were built as tombs, and the capstones were once hidden under a mound of stones or earth that has since gone.
Folklore: at Proleek in County Louth, local legend says that the dolmen was carried there by the Scottish giant Para Buidhe Mór Mhac Seoidin, who challenged the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill to combat. Fionn poisoned a nearby river, Para drank from it, and the giant was buried at the site. A wedge-shaped gallery grave called the Giant's Grave lies about 90 metres to the south-east. The tale is traditional.
When visiting, look at how the portal stones frame the entrance and how the capstone slopes down towards the back, and note that some tombs stand close to roads.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Poulnabrone dolmen, Wikipedia: Brownshill Dolmen, Wikipedia: Proleek Dolmen, Wikipedia: Portal dolmen, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1909
Auf Karten des britischen Ordnance Survey wurde die Formation im Jahr 1909 als „Giants Grave“ eingezeichnet.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–3000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for dolmens in Ireland; this site has not been dated itself. Irish portal tombs are dolmens and most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000-3000 BCE).Source for this date
Where it stands
Ireland
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 54°04′26″ N, 8°38′51″ WFor a GPS or map app: 54.07394, -8.64742
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q26807793wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Boulder Burial von Achonry" (German), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors