The dramatic peaks of Muckish and Errigal mountains dominated the southern horizon, providing a striking backdrop to this ancient monument. Sadly, this piece of Ireland’s prehistoric heritage was destroyed during the winter of 1978;9, when the stone orthostats that formed its structure were torn from the ground and unceremoniously dumped in a pit at the southern corner of the field where it had stood for millennia.

Before its demolition, the tomb consisted of a stone gallery approximately six metres long, divided into two chambers and entered from the east. The front chamber measured about 2.6 metres long and up to 2.25 metres wide, whilst the rear chamber stretched roughly three metres in length and appeared to narrow towards the back. The chambers were separated by two upright stone jambs set lengthwise, creating a passage between them about 0.85 metres wide. The entire structure was built using a combination of natural boulders and split stones, with some positioned to show their flat faces inward, typical of court tomb construction techniques. At the eastern entrance, a transverse jamb stone and adjacent sillstone marked the threshold, whilst a distinctive gable;shaped stone, standing 0.85 metres high, closed off the gallery’s western end.

Archaeological surveys conducted in 1952 and revised in 1975 documented various other features around the main gallery, including a curious arrangement of three stones about 1.5 metres in front of the entrance. The easternmost of these, a split boulder half a metre high, may have been part of a ceremonial court area that gave this type of tomb its name. Traces of what was likely once a substantial covering mound were still visible at the time of destruction, though too degraded to map properly. Several displaced stones and loose boulders scattered around the site hinted at the monument’s former grandeur, serving as silent testimony to the complex burial practices and beliefs of Ireland’s Neolithic communities who built these impressive structures over 5,000 years ago.