Megalithic tomb, Knockagarran, Co. Donegal
Tucked away on a conifer-planted hillside about 4.5 kilometres southwest of Convoy village in County Donegal, this enigmatic megalithic monument offers sweeping views across the Deele River basin whilst presenting archaeologists with an intriguing puzzle.
Megalithic tomb, Knockagarran, Co. Donegal
The ruined structure sits atop a grass-covered oval mound measuring roughly 6 metres northwest to southeast and rising about a metre at its highest point. Despite extensive study, including documentation in the Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, experts remain unable to definitively classify this ancient tomb due to its deteriorated and ambiguous condition.
The monument’s most striking feature is a massive displaced roofstone, measuring over 2 metres square and 30 centimetres thick, which now rests at an angle above what appears to be a narrow gallery. This gallery-like structure consists of several standing stones, including two particularly tall orthostats at the southern end that rise 1.2 metres above the excavated interior floor. The space between these stones has been dug out to a depth of 40 centimetres, revealing the inner faces of the supporting stones. Three large prostrate slabs, each between 20 and 35 centimetres thick, lie scattered across the mound alongside smaller stones, suggesting the monument may have once been considerably more elaborate.
Archaeological interpretation remains divided on what this structure originally represented. One theory suggests it could be the remains of a narrow gallery tomb at least 2 metres in length, whilst another proposes that the two tall southern stones might be all that remains of one side of a much larger gallery, with the opposing stones possibly representing an outer wall and buttress system. The current arrangement of stones, combined with evidence of disturbance and displacement over the millennia, means that without further excavation, this Donegal monument must remain officially unclassified; a tantalising glimpse into our Neolithic past that refuses to yield all its secrets.





