County: Donegal Site name: CROAGHBEG
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: L.N.W. Flanagan, Department of Antiquities, Ulster Museum
Site type: Megalithic tomb - court tomb
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 564859m, N 874796m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.620183, -8.544099
The excavation of this fine and relatively well preserved Court Grave, on behalf of National Parks and Monuments Branch of the Office of Public Works, was concluded this season, this final season being devoted to clarification of some problems left over from 1972 and to overall tidying up.
The excavations, which began with a preliminary season in 1969, revealed that Croaghbeg, like neighbouring Shalwy, was a full-courted grave, with a main gallery of two chambers. At Croaghbeg the enclosing cairn measured some 36 x 16 metres. A subsidiary chamber on the N side of the forecourt was well preserved.
Finds from the excavation, concentrated for the most part in the three main seasons (1970-72), included an impressive range of flint implements.
The Court Grave at Croaghbeg, as that in Shalwy, should have the necessary conservation work carried out on it in order to preserve it from otherwise inevitable deterioration and to present the two as neighbouring and important examples of this type of monument.
