Megalithic tomb, Cruachlann, Gleann Cholm Cille, Co. Donegal
North of the road between Teelin and Bunglass, in the steeply undulating landscape about 600 metres from the coast, stands the damaged remains of what appears to be an ancient megalithic tomb.
Megalithic tomb, Cruachlann, Gleann Cholm Cille, Co. Donegal
The monument sits on a relatively level patch of boggy ground at the base of a steep rock face, with its view southward over Donegal Bay partially blocked by two low hills. The structure consists of what seems to be a segmented gallery, now measuring 3.5 metres long and roughly 2 metres wide, oriented east-northeast to west-southwest.
The most prominent feature is a large, flat-topped stone on the north side of the gallery, measuring 2.15 metres long and leaning at an angle. This massive slab, between 25 and 35 centimetres thick, is held in position by smaller stones and rises about 1.3 metres high on its inner face due to the lowered ground level within the chamber area. Two stones appear to divide the gallery into segments, both standing about 60 centimetres in exposed height. The south side of the gallery is marked by two smaller stones, each about 30 centimetres high, though the eastern one shows damage that suggests someone attempted to smash it. According to historical records from the 1840s, there was once another large stone on the south side, similar in size to the northern slab and also leaning inward; local accounts confirm this stone remained standing until the 1920s or 1930s.
Various displaced stones lie partly buried within the gallery area, with considerable numbers of slabs scattered around the site, particularly towards the north near the rock face from which they were likely quarried. The arrangement of stones, particularly what might be a jamb with an adjoining sillstone, hints that this could be the remains of a court tomb containing at least two chambers. However, without more definitive evidence, archaeologists have classified this monument as ‘unclassified’, leaving its exact nature and original purpose open to interpretation. The site was documented in various surveys throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, most comprehensively in Eamon Cody’s Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland in 2002.





