Brennanstown Dolmen

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Brenanstown Dolmen

Between 4000 and 2500 BC Brenanstown Dolmen (also called Glendruid or Druid's Altar ), built in the Neolithic Age , is a portal tomb . It is located in the townland of Brenanstown ( Irish Baile Uí Bhraonáin ) in a valley, not far from Brennanstown Road, in the south of County Dublin near Bray in the valley of Glen Druid, about 1.7 km south of Cabinteely in the Republic of 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, which is covered with a sometimes huge capstone.

There have been restorations on the back of the megalithic complex , the stones of which are made of granite . The capstone, rising to a height of 3.5 m at the front, is around 4.4 m long and wide and weighs around 45 tons and the thickness of the cap stone has the typical, tapering shape of Irish portal tombs. This gives the dolmen the appearance of a bird in flight. It has two deep gutters on top of the end stone with channels leading to the sides. This is a form that has been noted several times on Irish monuments.

Behind the grave there is a rectangular arrangement of stones that could have belonged to a second chamber, so that the complex would be one of only two double portal tombs.

The Portal Tomb has a certain resemblance to the nearby Portal Tomb of Kiltiernan .

Brennanstown menhir

The menhir standing stone is surrounded by a modern housing development. The stone was rebuilt 200 m east of its original location. It is 1.38 m high, 0.30 m wide, 0.23 m deep and is made of granite. It was excavated by Judith Carroll in advance of the construction work. He stood in a small pit, supported by a stone packing. Fragments of burned human bone were found nearby.

See also

literature

  • Peter Harbison : Guide to the Naional Monuments in the Republic of Ireland Gill and Macmillan, Dublin 1992 ISBN 0-7171-1956-4 p. 71
  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .

Web links

Coordinates: 53 ° 15 ′ 13.8 "  N , 6 ° 9 ′ 28"  W.