Ballygunnertemple
The megalithic complex of Ballygunnertemple ( Irish Baile Gunnair an Teampaill ) is located on a slight northern slope in the townland Ballygunnertemple ( Irish Baile Gunnair an Teampaill ), about one kilometer southeast of the tidal mouth of the River Suir , south of the R683 "Dunmore Road" and 4.0 km southeast from Waterford in County Waterford in Ireland .
Canon Power translated Ballygunnertemple as "Baile Mhic Gonair an Teampaill". That means "the place of Gonar's son's temple", that would be one of the few Irish names that remind of the Norman occupation. Power was referring to the founding of Waterford by the Vikings in AD 914, a common reflection of antiquarians and historians of the time.
The megalithic complex consists of two parallel west-east oriented stones and a shifted capstone that leans against the east stone. They formed a chamber 1.8 × 1.7 m. Two stones about 3.0 m away may form a second chamber of 1.5 × 0.7 m. A semicircular mound of clay 0.4 to 0.7 m high and 10.5 × 8.7 m in diameter lies about 4.0 m southeast of the structure.
In 1895 Ringrose Atkins (1845–1898) gave a lecture on a stone box in Ballygunnertemple. He discovered that it was lying in a grove of trees on Mount Druid on the road from Waterford to West Passage, in a state of destruction . In 1912 it was discovered that between Passage West and Waterford there was a huge grave or cromlech in a ruinous state.
Atkins definition of a kistvaen was that it was made up of two side stones topped by a series of heavy slabs. There is also a heavy stone at each end to complete the chamber. The floor of the chamber is below ground level. Atkins also used this definition to classify the entrance graves of Matthewstown and Harristown , which he calls Kilmacomb or Kistvaen, as Cornish stone boxes are called. He notes that Ballygunnartemple like Harristown ( Irish Carrick-a-Dhirra ) has a ring made of stones. Then there are the stone chambers and the hill.
Ballygunnartemple can be a passage tomb , an entrance grave or a multiple stone box cairn . The type cannot be determined without an excavation.
See also
literature
- Elizabeth Shee Twohig: Irish Megalithic tombs . Shire, Princes Risborough 1990, ISBN 0-7478-0094-4 ( Shire archeology 63).
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 13 '40.2 " N , 7 ° 2' 25.9" W.