1986:67 - CARRICKAHORNA EAST, Sligo

The site, called 'Cairn M', constitutes a part of the passage tomb complex at Carrowkeel in the Bricklieve Mountains, Co. Sligo. It is one of the very few sites that was not dug into by Macalister in 1911, because it was considered as being 'ruined to the base' (PRIA 29C, 330). The excavation forms part of a study of the passage tomb tradition in Co. Sligo, which will be presented as a Ph.D. thesis in archaeology at the University of Stockholm. The excavation was funded by the same university and was carried out over a two-week period.

The chamber, which lacks capstones, is of the cruciform type and is enclosed in a cairn with a diameter of c. 8m and a height of c. 0.6m. The main aim of the excavation was to record the original size and construction of the cairn. A trench, 1.2m x 6m, starting c. 3m outside the cairn and ending at the chamber orthostats, was excavated. The trench reached the chamber at the angle between the front and right-hand recesses. No part of the chamber was excavated.

The cairn consisted of a very compact construction of limestone with the size of the stones within the range 0.1m-0.8m. The cairn had slipped slightly towards the chamber and the orthostats in this part were leaning inwards. The uppermost part of the cairn consisted mainly of small stones but lower down a wider range of size was present. Close to the orthostats, a number of relatively large stones formed the core of the cairn. The diameter of the original cairn construction is estimated to have been c. 1m less than the present cairn. No kerbstones were found. A deposit of cremated and un-cremated bones was found between two of the orthostats, at a level similar to the lower part of the cairn.