Altar Wedge Tomb

On a roadside platform, c. 30m from and 4m above the rocky shoreline of the NE edge of Toormore Bay. This wedge tomb was excavated in 1989 by Dr. William F. O'Brien (see summary: https://excavations.ie/report/1989/Cork/0000842/). It consists of a simple slab-built chamber aligned ENE-WSW. This gallery is formed by two orthostat rows of three slabs each (L 3.4m; Wth 1.9m at W end, 1m at E end). One roofstone remained in position above the E end; a second rested against the W end of the gallery. No clear evidence for a cairn was recovered during excavation, which may be explained by intensive post-medieval cultivation and the early 19th-century road construction. The socket for a backstone and a low stone kerb feature at the entrance were uncovered. The latter contained three fragments of cetacean bone deliberately deposited in this construction context, and overlaid two pits on either side of the entrance which contained shattered slaty stone, possibly tooling debris gathered after the deliberate shaping of the orthostats and capstones. Two cobble-hammers used in this activity were also recovered.

A pit containing votive deposits of limpet, periwinkle shells and fish bones was found at the E end of the chamber, and a small spread of cremated human bone was uncovered inside the entrance area. Finds outside the chamber included struck pebble flint, including two end-scrapers and a broken hollow scraper, recovered in cultivation-disturbed contexts. Only a solitary fragment of struck flint was recovered from the chamber. (de Valera and O Nualláin 1982, 41, no. 61; Roberts 1988, Ch. 4, No. 19; pers. comm. Dr. W. F. O'Brien; https://excavations.ie/report/1989/Cork/0000842/)

This is a National Monument in State care (no. 645)