Name: Portal Tomb von Aghavas
Address: IE

Overview

The Portal Tomb von Aghavas is a half-overgrown Neolithic portal tomb in the townland of Aghavas (also Aughavas; Irish Achadh an Mheasa), on a south-west-facing slope between Carrigallen and Cloone in the south-east of County Leitrim, Ireland. It is of modest size but shows the structure characteristic of its type.

Portal tombs in Ireland and Britain are megalithic monuments in which two upright stones of equal height, with a door stone between them, form the front of a chamber covered by a massive capstone.

The portal stones reach a height of about 1.45 m. A side stone and the end stone of the chamber also survive. The chamber is oriented north to south and measures about 1.65 m in length and 0.9 m in width. It lies at the north end of a rectangular cairn of about 27.5 × 7.5 metres, which was once piled over and around the grave. The proportions of the cairn suggest that it is only part of the original construction. At some time a field bank running north-east to south-west was cut into the west side of the mound, an example of the reshaping by which countless prehistoric monuments in Ireland have been altered.

A stone slab lying near the chamber, measuring about 1.2 × 1.05 metres and up to 0.4 metres thick, may have served as a capstone that covered the chamber completely.

Portal Tomb von Aghavas

Overview

The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.