Megalithic tomb - passage tomb, Kilmonaster Middle, Co. Donegal
In the townland of Kilmonaster Middle, near Ballindrait in County Donegal, there once stood a remarkable complex of megalithic monuments known locally as the 'Giant's Graves'.
Megalithic tomb - passage tomb, Kilmonaster Middle, Co. Donegal
These ancient structures, mapped in detail during the 1840s Ordnance Survey, have since vanished from the landscape, leaving only historical records and archaeological notes to tell their story. The complex consisted of three sites, with Sites B and C positioned about 120 metres west of Site A, forming what appears to have been a small passage tomb cemetery.
The monuments were intriguing enough to catch the attention of Victorian antiquarians. Site B appeared as a circular feature roughly 20 metres in diameter, marked on early maps as a ‘Druidic Circle’ with what seemed to be a stone kerb surrounding a central chamber or ‘Cromlech’. Just 10 metres northwest stood Site C, a smaller structure also identified as a cromlech. Thomas Fagan, writing between 1845 and 1848, documented these monuments before their destruction, noting that they were built with stones ranging from about 60 centimetres to just over a metre in height. One grave measured approximately 3.3 metres long by 1.4 metres wide, whilst the other was 1.8 metres long with the same width; both had apparently been larger originally, suggesting they’d already suffered some damage by Fagan’s time.
Archaeological testing in 2005 ahead of agricultural development revealed little of the monuments themselves, though a worked piece of flint turned up in the topsoil, a tantalising reminder of the site’s ancient past. The excavation, conducted just 5 metres from where one of the passage tombs once stood, found mainly modern disturbance and animal bones from livestock burials along an old field boundary. Whilst the physical monuments have been lost, their presence in the historical record confirms that this corner of Donegal was once home to a significant prehistoric burial complex, likely dating to the Neolithic period when such passage tombs were commonly constructed across Ireland.





