Aghnaskeagh Cairns

This monument was excavated in 1934 by E. E. Evans (CLAJ 1935, 234-55). It comprises an oval cairn (LH004-032001-), 17.5m long by 11m wide, orientated NNE-SSW, incorporating a portal-tomb to the E and six Bronze Age cists to the W. The tomb, facing N, is represented by portal stones, each 2.7m high, and a back stone standing 2m to the S. The chamber area contained four pockets of cremated bone with some Neolithic and Bronze Age pot sherds and a blue glass bead. The cists (LH004-032002-, LH004-032004-, LH004-032005-, LH004-032006-, LH004-032007-, LH004-032008-) yielded cremations and food vessels. Evidence of iron-smelting was recovered from a furnace area (LH004-032003-) immediately N of the cairn (PRIA (C) 1982, 320-1, fig. 36).

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 36/1934) and is also a National Monument in state guardianship: No. 326