Laraghirril Court Tomb

The monument, like Knockergrana (Dg. 74), is on the tract of good agricultural land between Trawbreaga Bay and Tremone Bay at the N end of the Inishowen peninsula. It occupies a prominent position on Black Hill and commands good views of the district, with the sea visible c. 3km to the N.

The structure consists of a gallery c. 8.5m long divided into two chambers. Doubled jambs at its ESE end appear to mark the entrance to the gallery, but there is no trace of a court. The gallery stands in a low grass-grown mound 12m long, 6m wide and c. 0.6m high. According to 'Maghtochair' (1867), a circle of stones laid at intervals and c. 70 yards (c. 64m) in circumference enclosed the gallery. There is now no trace of such a feature.

The two jambs at the N side of the E end of the gallery are both transversely set. The inner one, 0.8m high, rises 0.3m above the top of the outer one. The outer one of the two jambs at the S side is longitudinally set and at 0.75m high rises 0.25m above the top of the inner, transversely set one.

The eastern chamber is c. 3m long and 2.4m wide. Three orthostats form the northern side, and their heights from E to W are 1.3m, 1.55m and 1.1m. The outermost of these overlaps the adjoining jambs and rises 0.5m above the innermost one. Only two orthostats remain on the S side of the chamber. That toward the front, its outer face hidden by the mound, is only 0.25m high and may be broken. The other stone is 1.15m high.

The segmenting jambs are longitudinally set and placed inside the lines of the gallery walls. These are especially tall stones, with the northern one 1.7m high and the southern 1.8m. Between the jambs are two septal-stones, one immediately in front of the other. The eastern one leans slightly to the E and, though now slightly loose in the ground, seems to be in situ. It is 0.85m high, c. 0.05m taller than the western septal-stone.

The western chamber is c. 3.5m long and reaches a maximum width of 2.5m at mid-length. It narrows to 1.9m at its open W end. The orthostats forming the sides of this chamber are generally lower than those of the eastern chamber. The heights of the three on the N side from E to W are 0.95m, 1m and 0.6m. The heights of the four on the S side from E to W are 0.8m, 0.65m, 0.65m and 0.6m.

There are a number of displaced blocks of stone at the site, only two of which, at the E end of the gallery, are shown on plan. The smaller one, 1.5m by 0.4m, is almost buried. The larger measures 2.1m by 1.1m and may be a displaced lintel from above the entrance jambs. One end of this now rests above a third displaced stone (not on plan). Two other displaced stones (not on plan), both measuring 0.9m in maximum dimension, lie just W of the three already referred to.

The general design of the monument suggests that this was a two-chambered gallery entered, as suggested above, from the ESE. Doubling of jambs is a recognised though infrequently occurring entrance feature, and the narrowing of the sides of the western chamber toward the back suggests that it is the endchamber. An earlier suggestion that this chamber was a narrow court (Davies 1942, 82; Davies and Evans 1943, 8, 17) now seems most unlikely.

'Maghtochair' 1867, 16; Borlase 1897, 229-30, Inishowen East, no. 9; R.S. Young 1897, 199 ('the bed of Diarmuid and Greine' on the hill of Deen); Anon. 1902; A.I. Young 1929, 8; Davies 1942, 82, fn. 8; Davies and Evans 1943, 8 (plan), 17; S.P. O'Riordan 1947, 43; Davies 1948, 10 (plan); Colhoun 1949, 112 (plan), 116; Swan 1949, 22-3 (photograph); O'Kelly 1958, 57; Corcoran 1960, 146, no. 112; de Valera 1960, 104, DG. 1 (plan); Killanin and Duignan 1962, 185; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 193; Bonner 1972, 116; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 24, no. 30 (plan); SMR 1987, 12:3; Ó Nualláin 1989, 117; Colhoun 1995, 48 (plan), plate 8 (a); RMP 1995, 12:3.