Coolnatullagh
DatedEst. 2500–2000 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
Coolnatullagh (Irish Cúl na Tulcha, “back of the hill”) is a wedge tomb on Gortaclare Mountain in the Burren, in the north of County Clare, Ireland. The catalogue gives a typological estimate of 2500 to 2000 BCE.
It lies about 300 m from the road and is hard to make out because of the many boulders and the vegetation. It is in poor condition.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
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
Coolnatullagh
The tomb lies in the northern part of the Burren, at the head of a valley that runs north-east from the Carron Depression towards Slieve Carran.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): CoolnatullaghCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): CoolnatullaghCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb lies in the northern part of the Burren, at the head of a valley that runs north-east from the Carron Depression towards Slieve Carran. The round stone cairn has a diameter of 16 m and stands up to one metre above the level of the surroundings. The eastern third of the cairn has been completely excavated, while part of the once grass-covered cairn survives.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): CoolnatullaghCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): CoolnatullaghCC BY-SA 4.0
Thomas Johnson Westropp (1860–1922) recorded that a small cross-shaped stone once stood in the monument. Two stone cists, one of them containing human remains, were discovered nearby.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): CoolnatullaghCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): CoolnatullaghCC BY-SA 4.0
The cairn was damaged in 1995 or 1996 in the course of digging.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): CoolnatullaghCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): CoolnatullaghCC BY-SA 4.0
A wedge tomb takes its name from the way the burial chamber narrows at one end, usually decreasing both in height and in width from west to east. Wedge tombs are one of the four categories of Irish megalithic tomb described by Seán Ó Nualláin and Rúaidhrí de Valera in their survey of 1961.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Irish wedge tombs
A wedge tomb, or wedge-shaped gallery grave, is a type of Irish chamber tomb. It takes its name from the way the burial chamber narrows at one end, usually decreasing both in height and in width from west to east, which gives it a wedge shape in profile. An antechamber is separated from the burial area by a simple stone slab. Wedge tombs are one of the four categories of megalithic tomb described by the Irish scholars Seán Ó Nualláin and Rúaidhrí de Valera in their survey of 1961: court cairns, portal dolmens, wedge-shaped gallery graves and passage tombs.
A gallery grave is a megalithic tomb in which the main gallery is entered without first passing through an antechamber or hallway. The gallery graves of western Europe were probably community burial sites, in which family or hamlet members were laid to reinforce the sense of community. Gallery graves can be covered with an earthen mound or a cairn, and there are at least four major types: complex, transepted, segmented and wedge-shaped.
Wedge tombs were built between the Irish late Neolithic and the middle Bronze Age, about 2500 to 2000 BCE. Between 500 and 550 survive, mostly in the west and north-west of Ireland. A distinguishing feature is the double walling of the gallery. They were often covered by round, oval or D-shaped cairns, usually about 1.5 metres high, with a kerb, and are generally found on mountainsides, about three-quarters of the way up. The doorway generally faces west.
When visiting, look at how the walls narrow towards the back of the tomb and at the double wall of the gallery.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Wedge-shaped gallery grave, Wikipedia: Gallery grave, Wikipedia: Bell Beaker culture, Wikipedia: Passage grave · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2500–2000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for wedge tombs in Ireland; this site has not been dated itself. Wedge tombs were built between the Irish late Neolithic and middle Bronze Ages about 2500 to 2000 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Ireland
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 53°04′43″ N, 9°01′15″ WFor a GPS or map app: 53.07850, -9.02075
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.
Poulaphuca (Burren)2500–2000 BCE- Wedge tombWedge Tomb of Cappaghkennedy2500–2000 BCE
- Chambered cairnTullycommon Wedge Tomb3750–2900 BCE
- Chambered cairnSlievenaglasha Wedge Tomb3750–2900 BCE
Poulnabrone dolmen2930–2410 BCE
Gleninsheen4000–2900 BCE
Doorus Demesne wedge tomb2500–2000 BCE
Creevagh Tomb2500–2000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1129711wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Coolnatullagh" (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
- Wikipedia (German): CoolnatullaghCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1129711CC0