Court Tomb von Carn
DatedEst. 4000–3000 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
The court tomb of Carn lies about 50 m north of a road in the townland of Carn (Irish Na Cairn), north of Newbliss in County Monaghan, Ireland. It was built in the Neolithic, between 4000 and 2500 BCE. Carn is one of three townlands of that name in Monaghan.
Court tombs are megalithic chambered tombs, found in Ireland and Britain. About 400 examples are known, mostly in Ulster, in the north of the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland. The term court tomb was introduced in 1960 by the Irish archaeologist Ruaidhrí de Valera.
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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
Court Tomb von Carn
The facade of the U-shaped court is relatively well preserved, with large orthostats flanking the portal stones.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Court Tomb von CarnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Court Tomb von CarnCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb has a wedge-shaped cairn about 35 m long, which gave the townland its name. The facade of the U-shaped court is relatively well preserved, with large orthostats flanking the portal stones. The lintel over the entrance lies in the first of the three chambers of the gallery. A few facade stones are visible at the front edge of the cairn, which now stands only about 40 cm high.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Court Tomb von CarnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Court Tomb von CarnCC BY-SA 4.0
About 3.1 km away, in Northern Ireland, stood the destroyed court tomb of Carnbane.
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
- 2500 BCE
Das zwischen 4000 und 2500 v. Chr. in der Jungsteinzeit errichtete Court Tomb von Carn liegt etwa 50 m nördlich einer Straße im Townland Carn (irisch Na Cairn, eines von dreien dieses Namens in Monaghan), nördlich von Newbliss im County Monaghan in Irland.
Source - 1960
Der Begriff Court Tomb wurde 1960 von dem irischen Archäologen Ruaidhrí de Valera eingeführt.
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.
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°10′46″ N, 7°03′57″ WFor a GPS or map app: 54.17955, -7.06597
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.
- Portal tomb (portal dolmen)Portal Tomb von Garran4000–3000 BCE
- Court tomb (court cairn)Tiredigan Court Tomb4000–2500 BCE
Calliagh2500–2000 BCE- Court tomb (court cairn)Cairnbaine court tomb3750–2900 BCE
- Court tomb (court cairn)Court Tomb von Edergole3750–2900 BCE
- Stone row (alignment)Drumgole stone row
Court Tomb von Killydrutan3750–2900 BCE
portal tomb of Mayo4000–3000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q20758240wikidata.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 "Court Tomb von Carn" (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): Court Tomb von CarnCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q20758240CC0