Kilclooney Mor
| Kilclooney More TOWNLAND Irish: Cill Chluanadh Mhór | |
| County Donegal | |
|---|---|
 The eastern portal tomb in Kilclooney More | |
| Location | |
| Location: | 54°49’4"N, 8°25’59"W |
| Grid reference: | G722967 |
| Data | |
Kilclooney More is a townland in coastal County Donegal, situated halfway between Narin and Ardara on the R261 and on the Loughrea Peninsula.
The name of the townland is from the Gaelic Cill Chluanadh Mhór, meaning 'Church of the pasture'.[1]
Megalithic tombs
Kilclooney More belongs to the low-lying land in the west of County Donegal that is prominent for its concentration of court tombs and portal tombs. In the Neolithic period this land was fertile due to a warmer and drier climate, supporting farming communities who crafted ceramics and built tombs which are still described as ‘magnificent’:
One of the most striking Neolithic monuments in Donegal is the portal tomb at Kilclooney More, near Ardara. Its 4.2- metre long ‘birdlike’ capstone is only one of the unusual features of this magnificent structure.[2]
Portal tomb Dg. 68
The smaller portal tomb of Kilclooney More is located west of the R261, in a shallow basin north of the Abberachrin River. The eastern portal stone is missing but otherwise the tomb is well preserved. The chamber is comparatively small, measuring 5 feet × 4 feet, pointed in south-south-easterly direction. It is referred to as 'Dg. 68' by Eamon Cody.[3][4]
Court tomb Dg. 69
The court tomb known as 'Dg. 69' is located north of the portal tomb 'Dg. 68' and likewise west of the R261 road on flat moorland above the basin on a small hill that provides a commanding outlook in all directions. The gallery of the monument has a length of about 20 feet and a width of six feet to eight feet with three orthostats on each side. There are no surviving traces of a segmentation into chambers but de Valera assumes that the tomb consisted of two chambers. A heavy lintel that still resides on the side stones appears to be displaced and reversed in consideration of an 18th-century drawing that shows the lintel above the front of the gallery. Another lintel appears to be fallen and rests in front.[5][6][7]
Portal tomb Dg. 70
East of the R261 on rough moorland is the larger portal tomb 'Dg. 70' with two chambers, 30 feet apart, and a modern field wall in-between. The north-eastern chamber has a roof stone with a length of 14 feet which rests on two portal stones, both of 6 feet in height, and a very small pad-stone which in turn rests on the backstone 4 feet high. The smaller, south-western chamber has portal stones of 3 feet in height. The 6-foot roof stone is partly dislodged.[3][8]
The sill stone between the portal stones has a rectangular piece missing, a feature that is shared with the portal tombs of Poulnabrone, Ballybrittas, and Tawnatruffaun. Most of the stones are from grey granite outcrops in close vicinity to the tomb. The backstone in red Ardara granite stands in a stark contrast to the overall grey, it originates possibly from a cliffy extrusion 250 yards south of the tomb.[9]
The poorly-preserved cairn has a long shape with an NNE alignment that extends over 30 yards. The chambers are in the middle of the cairn with the north-eastern chamber 16 feet inside its northern end. The smaller chamber faces NNE, the larger chamber NE.[8][10]
Like almost all coastal portal tombs in Ireland, this tomb is oriented away from the sea with the backstone facing the coast.[11] The combination of a long cairn with a minor chamber as in Kilclooney More and Ballyrennan in Tyrone is seen by Ó Nualláin as an indication that portal tombs evolved from court tombs.[12]
Multiple sherds of Neolithic pottery, all belonging to one quartz-tempered vessel with fine textures, were found in the larger chamber and are now in the possession of the National Museum of Ireland.[13][14][15] Dating of Irish portal tombs is difficult as no radiocarbon dates are available. However, the sherds are assumed to belong to the Lyles Hill series of pottery which can be approximately dated as this kind of pottery has been found close to fireplaces at other sites. In consideration of this context, Arthur ApSimon estimates that portal tombs like those of Kilclooney More belong to a period from 5000 to 4800 BP, which is to say from about 3780 to about 3550 BC, which falls into the early Neolithic period.[16]
Outside links
- Kilclooney More: Townlands.ie
References
- ↑ Cill Chluanadh Mhór / Kilclooney More: Placenames Database of Ireland
- ↑ Lacey, Brian: 'Prehistoric Archaeology of Donegal: c. 7000 BC to c. AD 500' pp 101–106 in 'An Historical, Environmental and Cultural Atlas of County Donegal' (Cork University Press, 2013) ISBN 978-1-85918-494-3
- ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 Lacy, Brian, ed (1983). Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. Lifford: Donegal County Council. p. 32. ISBN 0-9508407-0-X.
- ↑ Cody, Eamon (2002). Survey of the Megalithic tombs of Ireland, Volume VI, County Donegal. Dublin: Stationery Office. pp. 93–94. ISBN 0-7557-1248-X.
- ↑ entry 15 on p. 107: de Valera, R. (1959). "The Court Cairns of Ireland". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 60: 9–140.
- ↑ Lacy, Brian, ed (1983). Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. Lifford: Donegal County Council. p. 22. ISBN 0-9508407-0-X.
- ↑ Cody, Eamon (2002). Survey of the Megalithic tombs of Ireland, Volume VI, County Donegal. Dublin: Stationery Office. pp. 94–96. ISBN 0-7557-1248-X.
- ↑ Jump up to: 8.0 8.1 Cody, Eamon (2002). Survey of the Megalithic tombs of Ireland, Volume VI, County Donegal. Dublin: Stationery Office. pp. 96–99. ISBN 0-7557-1248-X.
- ↑ Mercer, Phyllis: '[{{{url}}} Ritual aspects of Irish portal tombs]' ({{{year}}})
- ↑ Ó Nualláin, Seán (1983). "Irish Portal Tombs: Topography, Siting and Distribution". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 113: 75–105. The two portal tombs are listed as numbers 15 and 16 on p. 94. Ó Nualláin describes the smaller chamber to be aligned in NNW direction which appears to be wrong. Cody's survey gives an NNE alignment and provides a comparative chart with the alignments of all portal tombs in County Donegal in Fig. 94.
- ↑ Mercer, Phyllis: '[{{{url}}} Ritual aspects of Irish portal tombs]' ({{{year}}})
- ↑ Ó Nualláin, Seán (1979). "The Megalithic Tombs of Ireland: Neolithic Tombs and their Art". Expedition 21 (3): 6–15. https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/21-3/Nuallain.pdf.
- ↑ Items 64–66 at p. 18 in: Lucas, A. T.; Raftery, Joseph; Prendergast, Ellen; Ó Ríordáin, Breandán; Rynne, Etienne (1960). "National Museum of Ireland Archaeological Acquisitions in the Year 1958". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 90 (1): 1–40.
- ↑ Item 9 at p. 138 in: Herity, Michael (1964). "The Finds from the Irish Portal Dolmens". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 94 (2): 123–144.
- ↑ p. 319 in: Herity, Michael (1982). "Irish Decorated Neolithic Pottery". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 82C: 247–404.
- ↑ ApSimon, Arthur (1985). "Chronological Contexts for Irish Megalithic Tombs". The Journal of Irish Archaeology 3: 5–15.
- Lacy, Brian: 'Donegal' Archaeology Ireland volume 2 , no.2 (1988) pp 48–52