County: Clare Site name: POULNABRONE PORTAL TOMB, Poulnabrone
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Ann Lynch, National Parks and Monuments Branch, Office of Public Works, Dublin.
Site type: Megalithic tomb - portal tomb
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 523467m, N 701034m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.054469, -9.141609
Excavation and restoration works were completed at Poulnabrone in May 1988. A further section was excavated through the western side of the cairn to allow the insertion of a new orthostat on the western side of the chamber and to enable us to straighten the southwestern chamber orthostat which had broken in antiquity and was leaning inwards. The provision of an extra orthostat was deemed necessary to spread the load of the capstone more evenly and to take some weight off the original orthostats, the bases of which were found to be quite decayed when exposed during the excavation of the chamber.
The cairn construction was as previously described (see Excavations 1986) with some limestone slabs placed on edge in the north south and east west grykes, to help stabilise the cairn structure. Finds from the cairn included small fragments of human and animal bone, a few sherds of coarse pottery similar to that recovered from the chamber, a polished bone point and a possible hammerstone. Traces of pre-cairn soil cover were also uncovered and samples were taken for pollen analysis. This was carried out under the supervision of Dr Michael O'Connell of UCG, with negative results. The original pollen content had been almost completely mineralised in the alkaline environment.
A series of ten samples of human bone has been submitted to the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator unit. These dates should be available in 1989.
