The Griddle Stone, a strikingly graceful structure, is one of several in the area associated with Fionn Mac Cumhail and his cooking activities. Wakeman's tasteful illustration of the Giant's Griddle in Tawnatruffan in west County Sligo, above, dates from around 1880, just when photography was becoming more fashionable. Other sites were used by the Fianna and Fionn Mac Cumhail as cooking places or Griddle Stones, especially in west Sligo. Many dolmens are also associated with graves of famous giants or warriors, such as Nuada of the Silver Arm in Sligo's Labby rock. The original Diarmuid agus Grainne's bed is shown in the illustration above from 1837, showing the cave in Gleniff, Benwisken and the old Trillick or dolmen that gives the village of Ballintrillick its name. Portal dolmens are often known as Diarmuid agus Grainne's beds in Irish mythological stories and folklore connected with specific monuments. The chamber may have originally been covered with a cairn of stone, with probably just the massive roofslab visible at the top. Poulnabrone portal dolmen in County Clare is one of the most familiar and iconic neolithic monuments in Ireland. What we see today is the remaining structures, with the surrounding cairns long since removed for building stones and road materials. Many monuments exhibit the remains of long cairns of stones, and it is believed that the monuments would have been covered with cairns up to the capstone. How to build a dolmen by William A Green. The most chararteristic feature of a portal dolmen is the massive capstone or roofstone, often weighing tens of tons and usually inclined at an angle with the highest portion over the entrance or portal. This portal or entry is often found closed by a blocking stone. Clough portal dolmen, the Trillick of Ballintrillick in County Sligo was destroyed around 1950.ĭolmens as a monument type are generally classified by a kind of entrance feature, the 'portal' or doorway opening into the burial chamber. There many fine examples found in Ireland. As they name shows, they were considered to be otherworldly structures, the graves of giants or heroes or fallen warriors. The monuments we call portal dolmens today were known by many different names: Cromleachs, Giants Graves, Leabas or Beds, Diarmuid and Grainne's Bed, Giant's Griddle or Griddlestones and Stone Tables. They are easliy the mostĬlearly recognisable type of Irish megalithic monument, with Poulnabrone dolmen in County Clare often used in international marketing campaigns. There slightly under 200 portal dolmens in remaining in Ireland. Location: On the R480 in Co Clare, between Ballyvaughan and Kilfenora.An old photo of Ireland's largest dolmen at Brownshill in County Carlow. Keep your eyes peeled as you drive around, get out of the car occasionally and take a walk around – the echoes of our ancient ancestors are never very far away. The region where the dolmen stands – the Burren – is a treasure trove of stone age remains, with some 70 tombs and about 500 circular stone structures or forts. These allowed archaeologists to date the dolmen with some confidence to about 2,500 BC. Poulnabrone means “hole of the sorrows” and in 1986, when the area around the dolmen was excavated, the remains of 16 adults and children were found to have been buried there, over a period of perhaps 500 years.Īlongside them were many artefacts, including arrowheads and axes, stone beads and broken pottery, some of which are now on display in the National Museum in Dublin. It is also one of the most visited, so unless you arrive early in the morning you are likely to find quite a few people around. The Poulnabrone Dolmen is one of the finest remaining dolmans in Ireland.
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