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When
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Altar Wedge Tomb
 

County

Cork

Coordinates

N 51° 30' 49.4"   W 009° 38' 38.5"

Nearest town

Schull

Grid Ref.

V 85923 30224

Map No.

88

Elevation a.s.l. (m)

8

Date of visit

Sunday 23 June 2013

GPS Accuracy (m)

3
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The wedge tomb in the perfectly looked after site.


This wedge tomb is beautifully located overlooking Toormore Bay and the site where it stands is finely looked after, the grass all around is as mowed as a front garden lawn, and there's a spacious car park nearby. Of course most of the people who stop here do that for the breathtaking scenery rather than the tomb. Prehistoric people erected this tomb at the end of the Stone Age and chose to align it with Mizen Peak.

Excavations at this tomb revealed that it was used to bury cremated bones around 2,000 BC, but it was used in the Bronze Age as well when people dug shallow pits for food offerings between 1250 and 550 BC. The tomb was still in use in more recent centuries, between 124 and 224 AD, by Celtic Iron Age people.
This tomb regained a little popularity during the Penal Times when it was used as an altar, or mass rock, hence its name.
The tomb is 4.10 metres long, 2.10 metres wide and 1.50 metres tall. The entrance to the burial chamber is aligned to west-southwest (250°).
The structure has four upright stones on the north-northwest side and three upright stones on the south-southeast side of the chamber, one stone at the end of the chamber and two roof slabs. All the structure looks on a precarious balance because the side slabs lean to the south-southeast by about 20°.


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