Home

Who
What
Where
When
Why
Shrawee Wedge Tomb
 

County

Mayo

Coordinates

N 53° 42' 22.08"   W 009° 49' 29.64"

Nearest town

Louisburgh

Grid Ref.

L 79517 74485

Map No.

37

Elevation a.s.l. (m)

57

Date of visit

Friday 15 June 2018

GPS Accuracy (m)

3
Show Google Map              Show Monuments in the area

    
    
    
    
 
PREVIOUS      NEXT
Seen from the north. The red and yellow stick is 1 metre long, for scale.


At a Y-junction northwest of Cregganbaun there's a nice example of a wedge tomb. It is rather well preserved and it retains a double kerb on both sides and a good portion of antechamber.
A nice flat stone slab, about 22 centimetres thick, covers the burial chamber.
The highest point of the capstone is at 96 centimetres. The whole tomb is 5.80 metres long on the south side, and 2.30 metres wide.
Its entrance faces west-northwest (295°).

It seems that the wedge tomb had been venerated locally as a holy well with the name of Tobernahaltora, Irish for "Well of the altar", but its connections with the Christian world pass through the Penal Times, when the flat roofstone was used as an altar, as proved by the small Latin cross incised on the top surface, near the southeast corner. That's why the tomb is also locally known as "altóir".

Apparently the veneration of this place as a Christian site hasn't ceased, on the day of our visit we saw a rosary hanging from the the rear stone in the burial chamber.

Unfortunately, two elements spoil the beauty of this site, the presence of a modern bungalow to the east of the tomb, and a power pole too close to the south side of the monument.


Browse by Monument Type
Browse by County
Browse by Date of Visit
Browse by Map Number

A-Z List

Clickable Counties
Clickable OS Maps Grid

Find a Map

Multimap

The days before GPS

The Stones in the Movies

Glossary
Links
Guestbook
FAQ

What's NEW?


Search


Site view counter: 21812659

Copyright © 1994-2024 Antonio D'Imperio
All the photos, the graphics and the texts on this website are automatically copyrighted to me under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886. Any violation of the copyright will be pursued according to the applicable laws.

info@irishstones.org

Powered by AxeCMS/CustomEngine(V0.25.00 build 999) by Sergio "Axeman" Lorenzetti. (C) 2009-2015

counter