#Portal dolmen how to#

The original Diarmuid agus Grainne's bed is shown in the illustration above from 1837, showing the cave in Gleniff, Benwisken and the old Trillick or dolmen that gives the village of Ballintrillick its name. Portal dolmens are often known as Diarmuid agus Grainne's beds in Irish mythological stories and folklore connected with specific monuments. The chamber may have originally been covered with a cairn of stone, with probably just the massive roofslab visible at the top. Poulnabrone portal dolmen in County Clare is one of the most familiar and iconic neolithic monuments in Ireland. What we see today is the remaining structures, with the surrounding cairns long since removed for building stones and road materials. Many monuments exhibit the remains of long cairns of stones, and it is believed that the monuments would have been covered with cairns up to the capstone.

#Portal dolmen how to#

How to build a dolmen by William A Green. The most chararteristic feature of a portal dolmen is the massive capstone or roofstone, often weighing tens of tons and usually inclined at an angle with the highest portion over the entrance or portal. This portal or entry is often found closed by a blocking stone.

Clough portal dolmen, the Trillick of Ballintrillick in County Sligo was destroyed around 1950.ĭolmens as a monument type are generally classified by a kind of entrance feature, the 'portal' or doorway opening into the burial chamber. There many fine examples found in Ireland. As they name shows, they were considered to be otherworldly structures, the graves of giants or heroes or fallen warriors. The monuments we call portal dolmens today were known by many different names: Cromleachs, Giants Graves, Leabas or Beds, Diarmuid and Grainne's Bed, Giant's Griddle or Griddlestones and Stone Tables. They are easliy the mostĬlearly recognisable type of Irish megalithic monument, with Poulnabrone dolmen in County Clare often used in international marketing campaigns. There slightly under 200 portal dolmens in remaining in Ireland. An old photo of Ireland's largest dolmen at Brownshill in County Carlow.