County: Donegal Site name: CROAGHBEG td
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Mr. L.N.W. Flanagan, Ulster Museum
Site type: Megalithic tomb - court tomb (Donegal 19)
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 564854m, N 874812m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.620319, -8.544182
The second seasons excavation at this site (the third court-grave to be excavated in the same small valley, those in Bavan and Shalwy having previously been excavated by the writer) took place in August 1970.
Both chambers of the main gallery and the surviving subsidiary chamber on the north side of the forecourt were excavated. Small finds were disappointing, the only finished implements from the chambers being two heat-shattered flint plane-convex knives, a classical flint hollow scraper and a concave scraper. Surprisingly, both main chambers and the subsidiary had sills between the jambs. The floor of the subsidiary was very neatly paved over half its area.
In addition to the chambers a number of cuttings were opened around the cairn, but outside it. Excavation of the forecourt and of the total periphery of the cairn will be continued next year.
