Megalithic tomb, An Tsráid, Co. Donegal
Just west of Glencolumbkille church and graveyard, standing on a gentle ridge in the low pastures about 600 metres from Glen Bay's inner reaches, lies a considerably ruined megalithic monument that has puzzled archaeologists for decades.
Megalithic tomb, An Tsráid, Co. Donegal
The structure sits atop a long, grass-covered mound measuring 12 metres northeast to southwest, with only three stones that can be reliably identified as original structural elements: two to the north and one to the south. These emerge from opposite ends of the irregular mound, which rises 1.75 metres high and has been further complicated by a stone field wall that runs north to south across its top.
This ancient site has been thoroughly absorbed into local Christian tradition, serving as one of the stations in the turas, or pattern, associated with St Colmcille. The western side of the mound near its northern end still bears traces of a dry-stone wall construction, about 1.5 metres long, which may be the remnants of a temporary altar where mass was celebrated in more recent times. Writing in the 1840s, antiquarian Fagan noted that station ceremonies were regularly observed here and claimed there were additional sepulchral remains about 18 metres west of the surviving structure, complete with another temporary altar, though these have since vanished without trace.
The monument’s interpretation remains tentative, though one possibility is that the gabled stone at the south end served as a backstone, whilst the two northern stones functioned as a sidestone and segmenting jamb of a northeast-facing court tomb gallery that would have stretched at least 8.5 metres in length. Various other stones dot the mound; some set in place, others lying prostrate, including displaced slabs measuring over two metres across. The nearby court tomb at Farranmacbride, visible half a kilometre to the north, suggests this area held particular significance for Neolithic communities, though without further excavation, this monument must remain officially unclassified, its original purpose lost to the centuries of Christian appropriation and agricultural encroachment that have reshaped its form.





