Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Ballaghaglash, Co. Clare

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Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic tomb – wedge tomb, Ballaghaglash, Co. Clare

Sitting on open karst limestone in County Clare, this wedge tomb presents a puzzle that takes a moment to read correctly.

Three large slabs lie tumbled inside the chamber, all tilting towards the northwest, and the most likely explanation is that they are the original roof stones, which slid inward from the southern side at some point after the tomb was built. What looks like collapse is, in its way, a record of slow geological time working on a structure that was already ancient.

Wedge tombs are the most numerous of Ireland's megalithic tomb types, built broadly during the late Neolithic and into the early Bronze Age, roughly four to five thousand years ago. They take their name from a distinctive narrowing from one end to the other, and this example follows the form faithfully. The chamber runs approximately four metres on a north-northeast to south-southwest axis, tapering from a width of around two and a half metres, and the whole structure is oriented towards the south-southwest, the direction in which wedge tombs characteristically face. A substantial closing slab, just over two metres long and 1.2 metres high, marks that end of the chamber, though it has taken some damage at its southern edge. Alongside it stands a narrower but slightly taller companion slab. The northern wall of the chamber is defined by four upright stones set at intervals rather than continuously, with a fifth stone standing a little out of line at the western end. The eastern end has a backstone that leans slightly outward, and the southern side has fared the worst over time, with only one sidestone still visible. A low, grass-covered bank runs along the eastern and northern sides of the structure, likely the remnant of the cairn material that would once have enclosed the whole monument.

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