Aughnacliff
The portal Tomb of Aughnacliff (also Aughnacliffe , Aghnacliff , Irish Achadh na Cloiche ) is located 300 m northeast of the church of the village on the west side of Lough Gowna, in County Longford in Ireland and is one of the few megalithic complexes (next to Birrinagh and Cleenrah ) in this county. It belongs to a small group of portal tombs with straight or stacked cap stones. Other systems of this type are z. B. Knockeen in County Waterford , Kilmogue in County Kilkenny and the Kempe Stones in County Down in Northern Ireland . Megalithic systems on the British Isles are called Portal Tombs , in which two equally high, upright stones with a door stone in between form the front of a chamber that is covered with a sometimes huge capstone.
The unusual-looking Tomb portal from the Neolithic (3000 to 2000 BC) has a short north-south oriented chamber. It is formed by a pair of 1.6 m long stones, 1.2 m high and 60 cm thick, on which a 1.7 m long, 2.2 m wide and 1.2 m thick capstone rests. There is also a larger capstone about 3.2 m long, 2.3 m wide and 1.5 m thick. The front part of this upper capstone is supported by the only remaining portal stone (of two). This is about one meter long and wide and two meters high. The stones in the chamber are reading stones . The chamber no longer has a door stone, and the stone or earth mound that once covered it has been completely removed.
Cleenrah's Tomb Portal is about 1.2 km away .
See also
literature
- James Fergusson: Rude Stone Monuments. In all countries their age and uses. Murray, London 1872.
- Peter Harbison : Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland . Gill and Macmillan, Dublin 1992, ISBN 0-7171-1956-4 .
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 50 ′ 49.9 " N , 7 ° 36 ′ 1.4" W.