Rathlackan Tomb
DatedEst. 3750–2900 BCE
Photo Chris-from-mayo · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Rathlackan Tomb is a court tomb in County Mayo, Ireland. It lies at 54.2908° N, 9.2815° W.
Catalogue recordSources and licences
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
Rathlackan Tomb
ContextSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
A court cairn or court tomb is a type of chambered cairn identified by an open, uncovered courtyard connected to one or more roofed burial chambers. In the period 3900 to 3500 BCE more than 390 court cairns were built in Ireland and over 100 in south-west Scotland, where they are called Clyde cairns or Clyde-Carlingford cairns. The Clyde cairns are generally considered the earliest chambered cairns in Scotland, and they are distributed from the Solway Firth area north to the southern Hebrides. Many monuments were built in several phases and later reused in the Early Bronze Age. The regional background, “Irish and Scottish court tombs”, is given below.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
No scientific date has been published for this site. Monuments of this type in Ireland are generally dated 3750 BCE to 2900 BCE; the site itself may fall inside or outside that range.
The earliest court cairns were built around 3750 BC and new monuments continued to be built and existing ones enlarged until 2900 BC.
Setting
8 other recorded monuments lie within 10 km (1 within 1 km, 4 within 5 km), 3 of them of the same type. In County Mayo, Ireland, 4 of the 14 recorded monuments are of this type.
The nearest recorded monuments are Rathlacken (0.0 km south-east, court tomb); Carrowtrasna (3.3 km south-east, menhir); Rathoonagh Court Tomb (4.3 km south-west, court tomb); Wedge Tomb von Breastagh (5.0 km south, megalith).
ProtectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
No heritage designation is recorded for the site.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Irish and Scottish court tombs
A court cairn or court tomb is a type of chambered cairn identified by an open, uncovered courtyard connected to one or more roofed burial chambers. In the period 3900 to 3500 BCE more than 390 court cairns were built in Ireland and over 100 in south-west Scotland, where they are called Clyde cairns or Clyde-Carlingford cairns. The Clyde cairns are generally considered the earliest chambered cairns in Scotland, and they are distributed from the Solway Firth area north to the southern Hebrides. Many monuments were built in several phases and later reused in the Early Bronze Age.
The courtyard is oval or circular, with U-shaped and semicircular courts also known, and its boundary is typically lined with large standing stones. A narrow stone-lined entry leads from the court into the roofed chambers. At Creevykeel in County Sligo, the first court cairn excavated in Ireland, Harvard archaeologists worked in 1935 and concluded that the Neolithic in Ireland began in 3900 BCE, more than a hundred years before the first appearance of court tombs, and that court tombs were widely reused in the Early Bronze Age. Excavations at court tombs have yielded cremated and unburnt human bone and round-bottomed pottery.
In Scotland, Cairnholy in Dumfries and Galloway is the site of two chambered tombs of the Clyde type on a hillside overlooking Wigtown Bay, 4 kilometres east of Carsluith; the two lie within 150 metres of each other.
Court tombs are dated by radiocarbon dates of the bone they contain and the pottery.
When visiting, look for the standing stones of the forecourt and the entrance to the chambers.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Court cairn, Wikipedia: Chambered cairn, Wikipedia: Cairn Holy, Wikipedia: Passage grave · CC BY-SA 4.0
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. 3750–2900 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for court tombs in Ireland; this site has not been dated itself. The earliest court cairns were built around 3750 BC and new monuments continued to be built and existing ones enlarged until 2900 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Ireland
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 54°17′27″ N, 9°16′54″ WFor a GPS or map app: 54.29078, -9.28154
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.
Rathlacken3750–2900 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Carrowtrasna2800–1800 BCE
Rathoonagh Court Tomb3750–2900 BCE- MegalithWedge Tomb von Breastagh3300–2900 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Cashel Cairn3700–2900 BCE
- Stone circleRathfran Stone Circle3300–2500 BCE
Rathfranpark Wedge Tomb2500–2000 BCE
Court Tomb von Carbad More3750–2900 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q33110953wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Rathlacken Court Tomb.jpgChris-from-mayoCC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Compiled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a regional background article based on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Wikidata Q33110953CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0