Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery

This is a National Monument in State care (no. 518). Carn M in the Carrowkeel-Kesh Corann passage tomb cemetery. About 400m S of a passage tomb K (SL040-093----) and a possible passage tomb (SL040-094----) and c. 80m N of another passage tomb (SL040-102----) on the N edge of a small plateau with views limited to local horizons. A small, roofless, NW-facing cruciform passage tomb rises clear of a substantially grass-grown circular cairn (diam. c. 10m; H 1m). A passage (L 1m; Wth 0.7m) is separated by a sill from a central space (L c. 0.8m; Wth c. 0.6m) opening off which are two opposed side-chambers, one to the right (L c. 1m; Wth c. 0.9m), another to the left (L c. 0.8m; Wth 0.4m) and an endchamber (L c. 0.8m; Wth 0.4m). None of the tomb orthostats exceeds 0.8m in height. Some slabs lie prostrate on the mound forward of the passage which according to Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger (1912, 330) was originally 10 feet (c. 3m) long. A small excavation of the cairn (Bergh 1987, 32) led to the recovery of human bone at the edge of the tomb. Radiocarbon dating of a human tooth yielded a date in the interval 2451 to 2039 cal BC and of charcoal a date in the interval 3370 to 3042 cal BC (Bergh 1995, 105). (Ó Nualláin 1989, 83)