Wedge Tomb von Aghamore
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 wedge tomb of Aghamore (Irish Achadh Mór) lies near Kinlough in the north of County Leitrim, Ireland, close to the border with County Sligo. It is one of several megalithic monuments in the area, which include the court tombs of Shesknan and Leean Mountain, and it was discovered only recently.
Wedge tombs are double-walled, mostly undivided megalithic structures without a passage, dating to the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. The Aghamore tomb is almost intact.
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
Wedge Tomb von Aghamore
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Wedge Tomb von AghamoreCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Wedge Tomb von AghamoreCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb lies on uneven ground at the edge of a limestone plateau. It has the classic features of the type: a double facade, kerbstones and an antechamber. The box-like gallery measures about 3.0 by 2.0 metres and is 1.5 metres high, with some disturbance at the east end. Of the wedge-shaped cairn, which was about 9.0 m long, only remains survive. To the west of the tomb lie several sinkholes (dolines), which may have played a part in the choice of the site.
0 m long and aligned north to south contains four pits, which suggest that four chambers once lay in a row.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Wedge Tomb von AghamoreCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Wedge Tomb von AghamoreCC BY-SA 4.0
About 200 m to the east, on the opposite side of the limestone plateau, a stone mound about 41.0 m long and aligned north to south contains four pits, which suggest that four chambers once lay in a row. A few upright slabs are visible at its north end. About 400 metres to the north-west, at Tawnamachugh, lies a destroyed portal tomb in a stone mound of about 65.0 m, the longest mound for portal tombs in Ireland. To the south, at nearby Doonaveragh in County Sligo, there are several hut circles on the limestone plateau.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Wedge Tomb von AghamoreCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Wedge Tomb von AghamoreCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb has only just emerged from the peat, owing to global warming. A chain placed around one of the capstones suggests that vandals recently tried to destroy it.
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
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°20′47″ N, 8°18′25″ WFor a GPS or map app: 54.34648, -8.30684
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.
Magheraghanrush Court Tomb3050–2950 BCE- Portal tomb (portal dolmen)Portal Tomb von Gorteen4000–3000 BCE
- Court tomb (court cairn)Aghaderrard Court Tomb3750–2900 BCE
- Court tomb (court cairn)Tullyskeherny3750–2900 BCE
- Court tomb (court cairn)Gortnaleck Court Tomb3750–2900 BCE
- Wedge tombCoolbeg2500–2000 BCE
Creevykeel Court Tomb3750–2900 BCE
Abbeyquarter North Tomb3400–2900 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q20758233wikidata.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 "Wedge Tomb von Aghamore" (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