Location – Not far from the New Church this tomb is clearly visible from the road as you approach the main Lough Gur visitors centre.
OS: R 647 402 (map 65)
Longitude: 8° 31' 12" W
Latitude: 52° 30' 43.66" N
OS: R 64530 40219 (Accuracy: 9m)
Description and History – Until I saw this tomb the only wedge tomb I had seen was Cloneen in Tipperary which only has two stones in situ so apart from what I had read in books and the odd picture and diagram I didn’t really know what to expect so I was learning on the go here. I took some time at this site so that I could really get to grips with it and figure it out. By all accounts this has all the standard features of a wedge tomb so was a great place to learn about them.
Known as the ‘Giants’ Grave’ this tomb was excavated by S.P. O Riordain in 1938. The entire tomb is 8.8m length and 3.6m wide and is orientated NE-SW. The gallery is divided by a septal slab into two sections and sides are formed by double walling with rubble in-between the two rows of stone. The portico is much smaller than the main chamber and is 1.5m long. There are many other stones lying around in the vicinity that may have been part of the tomb.
Legend says that a woman use to live in the tomb and that when she died in 1833 the covering cairn was thrown off by money diggers. During excavations the remains of 8 adults and 4 children were found as well as many pottery fragments. Some fragments belonged to the beaker ware type.
Difficulty – On the side of the road so this is easy to get to.
For more wedge tombs, click here.
For more sites around Lough Gur, click here.
For more sites in Co. Limerick, click here.
View as you approach from the road.
Looking SW into the chamber.
From this angle you get a really good idea of the size of the tomb. You can also see why they are called wedge tombs because of the shape.
Looking towards the NE at the portico.
The portico - the capstone is missing here.
Close up of the capstones.
The double-walling.
Looking into the chamber...at a bad angle!
View The Standing Stone in a larger map
View The Standing Stone in a larger map
