County: Longford Site name: DERMOT AND GRANIA'S BED, Melkagh
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Gabriel Cooney, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin
Site type: Megalithic tomb - portal tomb
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 616134m, N 787622m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.837840, -7.754860
The third and final season of archaeological excavation at the Melkagh portal tomb site took place from the 15 September to 8 October. The excavation was funded by a grant from the Royal Irish Academy, administered by the Office of Public Works. Excavation of the site had to be undertaken following the removal of most of the monument.
A dump of stones in a hollow in the bedrock to the north of the probable location of the main chamber was fully excavated. It did not produce any finds. This and a similar shallower feature immediately to the south appeared to be small quarry areas which were deliberately backfilled with stones. While they cannot be directly related to the tomb structure they would appear to be of some antiquity.
Excavation of the surviving south-western portion of the tomb cairn revealed a remnant of the original cairn revetment with slabs set as a drystone wall. Immediately west of this was a zone of slabs lying at a steep angle and beyond this zone a general spread of stones extending over 9m from the cairn edge. This material appears to represent cairn spill or spread.
Excavation of cuttings to the north and west of the stone spread revealed in 1985 was carried out to define the extent of this feature. A small area was also opened to the east of the main excavation area to check for the survival of the eastern side of the cairn. This did not reveal any cairn material. A socket/pit feature cut into the subsoil in the area of the probable location of the main tomb chamber may be related to this chamber.
Finds from the excavation include a few worked chert flakes, a chert hollow-based arrowhead and a large chert flake which appears to be a re-used fragment of an implement with a ground surface.
