Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Ráith, Co. Donegal
About a kilometre south of the court tomb in Ballyboe and roughly the same distance north of another in Moyra Glebe, this ancient burial site occupies a slight ridge on low-lying farmland near Ráith in County Donegal.
Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Ráith, Co. Donegal
Standing 600 metres east of the Ray River and less than three kilometres from the coast, the tomb offers views of the sea to the north, whilst the imposing peaks of Muckish and Errigal mountains dominate the southern horizon.
What remains today are the remnants of what was once the end chamber of a court tomb gallery, facing east-southeast. Three original stones still stand: a tall, gabled backstone at the western end that rises 1.7 metres above the surrounding field level; a lower sidestone on the southern wall; and a transversely set jamb stone. The chamber would have measured approximately 3.7 metres in length. These structural elements sit within a mound that stretches seven metres north to south and six metres east to west, though much of its current bulk consists of field stones dumped there over the centuries. A large prostrate slab near the jamb may be its fallen partner, as mid-19th century records mention two upright stones at this end of the chamber.
The site has undergone considerable change since its first detailed recording in the 1840s, when observers noted a large prostrate stone on the northern side that likely served as another sidestone. Despite the passage of millennia and the loss of several structural elements, the surviving architecture clearly identifies this as part of the court tomb tradition, those distinctively Irish Neolithic monuments where communities once gathered to honour their dead in forecourts before stone galleries.





