Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Málainn Mhóir, Co. Donegal

Megalithic tomb – portal tomb, Málainn Mhóir, Co. Donegal

On the floor of a valley opening onto the north end of Malin Bay in County Donegal stands an extraordinary row of six megalithic chambers, stretching across 100 metres of reclaimed pasture land.

Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Málainn Mhóir, Co. Donegal

This westernmost complex of seven megalithic tombs in the townland forms part of National Monument no. 139, and sits 500 metres from the bay itself, with sweeping views out to sea to the west and north. The chambers are split between two fields just south of a narrow road, numbered one to six from west to east, with the four intermediate chambers arranged in a line about five metres north of an imaginary line connecting the larger terminal chambers at either end.

Four of these ancient structures are definitively portal tomb chambers, each facing a different direction: chamber one faces east-northeast, chamber two faces south-southeast, chamber three faces north, and chamber six faces east. Chamber five, though heavily ruined, appears to have been another portal tomb, whilst chamber four’s original design remains uncertain. The distances between the chambers vary from 9 to 30 metres, with the notably large gap between chambers five and six suggesting a seventh chamber may once have stood there, possibly destroyed during road construction. When Thomas Fagan visited in 1847, he recorded seven chambers and claimed they had once stood within a single long cairn measuring roughly 91 metres east to west and 18 metres north to south, though by his time it was already partly destroyed by farming and fence building.



Chamber six, a partially collapsed portal tomb at the eastern end of the complex, provides fascinating insight into the construction of these monuments. Its massive main roofstone, measuring 3.1 by 2.5 metres and 0.9 metres thick, has fallen eastward and now rests against two collapsed portal stones that would have stood over 2.5 metres high when upright. The chamber itself would have been 2 to 3 metres long when intact, narrowing from 2.5 metres wide at the entrance to 1.4 metres at the back, where an inset gabled backstone still stands in position. The Board of Works carried out restoration work here in the late 19th century, though the extent of their interventions remains disputed; whilst Borlase claimed in 1897 that major alterations were made, the current remains can still be satisfactorily interpreted as a collapsed portal tomb chamber without evidence of significant structural changes.

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Málainn Mhóir, Co. Donegal
54.68966066, -8.77329375
54.68966066,-8.77329375
Málainn Mhóir 
Megalithic Tombs 

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