Location – In Craughaun cemetery in Cratloe about 4km from Limerick city. It is a little tricky to find. The OS map shows it right on the railway line but it is actually about 10m away near the entrance to the cemetery. Getting to the cemetery is the hard part. You will need to take the turning about 100m South of the grid reference. The entrance doubles as a house entrance but go past the house, keeping it on your left, and you will come to the cemetery carpark.
OS: R 479 616 (map 58)
GPS: R 47907 61658 (Accuracy - 2m)
Longitude: 8° 46' 14.62" W
Latitude: 52° 42' 11.74" N
See map at the bottom of the page.
Description and History – This wedge tomb is a little puzzling which just adds to the appeal of it. It is a beautiful little tomb but I couldn’t help asking myself why was it so well preserved in the middle of a graveyard? When I looked around I found out that this tomb is actually a replica of one that used to stand at this site. It was erected by FAS workers after an excavation of the site that found little. I could find little out about this and would love to know if it uses any of the original stones. I was in two minds about putting this up on the site but decided to put this up as a cautionary tale to research what you are looking at the always be aware that archaeology is not always at it seems. It’s still worth having a look at and there are the ruins of a medieval church in the same graveyard.
Difficulty – Easy to view...difficult to get to the graveyard.
For more Neolithic Tombs, click here.
For more sites in Co. Clare, click here.
I like this shot mainly because of the rainbow.
View The Standing Stone in a larger map
