Poulnabrone dolmen
| Poll na mBrón | |
 Poulnabrone | |
 .svg.png){kind=icon} Shown within Ireland | |
| Location | Carran, The Burren |
|---|---|
| Region | Ireland |
| Coordinates | 53°02′56″N 9°08′24″W / 53.048842°N 9.139953°W |
| Type | Portal tomb |
| History | |
| Periods | Neolithic |
| Site notes | |
| Public access | Yes |
| Reference no. | 632[1] |
Poulnabrone dolmen (Poll na mBrón in Irish, meaning "hole of the quern stones" (bró in Irish)) is a portal tomb in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland, dating back to the Neolithic period, probably between 4200 BC and 2900 BC. It is situated 8 km (5 miles) south of Ballyvaughan, 9.6 km (6 miles) north-west of Kilnaboy[2]
Location
The tomb is located in a rocky field in the townland of Poulnabrone, parish of Kilcorney, close to the R480 road, south of Ballyvaughan in County Clare.
Name
Poulnabrone is sometimes wrongly translated as "Hole of Sorrows" (e.g. on Google Maps). However, "brone" is derived form the Irish bró, meaning quern.[3]:31
Features
The dolmen consists of a twelve-foot, thin, slab-like, tabular capstone supported by two slender portal stones, which support the capstone 1.8 m (6 ft) from the ground, creating a chamber in a 9 m (30 ft) low cairn. The cairn helped stabilize the tomb chamber, and would have been no higher during the Neolithic. The entrance faces north and is crossed by a low sill stone.[2]
Excavations
A crack was discovered in the eastern portal stone in 1985. Following the resulting collapse, the dolmen was dismantled, and the cracked stone was replaced. Excavations during that time found that between 16 and 22 adults and six children were buried under the monument. Personal items buried with the dead included a polished stone axe, a bone pendant, quartz crystals, weapons and pottery. In the Bronze Age, around 1700 BC, a newborn baby was buried in the portico, just outside the entrance. With its dominating presence on the limestone landscape of the Burren, the tomb was probably a centre for ceremony and ritual until well into the Celtic period, or it may have served as a territorial marker in the Neolithic landscape.
According to Radiocarbon dating, the tomb was likely used between 3,800 and 3,600 BC. The findings are now at the Clare Museum, Ennis, loaned from the National Museum of Ireland.[4]
Tourism
The dolmen is a popular tourist attraction, located close to the road between Ballyvaughan and Kilnaboy. A large car park was opened in 2007 by the Clare County Council to deal with traffic problems caused by cars or coaches parked in the narrow road. A 2005 estimate put the number of annual visitors at 200,000.[5]
Astronomy
Due to the Burren's lack of light pollution and Poulnabrone's remote location, the car park has been used by Shannonside Astronomy Club[6] as an unofficial public observatory. In April 2013, many observations of the comet PanSTARRS C/2011 L4 were made by the club at this location.
Gallery
References
- ↑ National Monuments in County Clare
- 1 2 Weir, A (1980). Early Ireland. A Field Guide. Belfast: Blackstaff Press. p. 110.
- ↑ Cunningham, George (1978). Burren Journey. Shannonside Mid Western Regional Tourism Organisation.
- ↑ "Poulnabrone Collection". Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ↑ "Poulnabrone Dolmen Car Park - Traffic Management". Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ↑ "Shannonside Astronomy Club". Retrieved 10 April 2013.
- Ann Lynch, Jessica Beckett: Poulnabrone: An Early Neolithic Portal Tomb in Ireland, 2014, ISBN 9781406428179.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Poulnabrone. |
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Coordinates: 53°2′55.83″N 9°8′23.83″W / 53.0488417°N 9.1399528°W