2015:041 - Burren (Tullyhaw By., Tuam ED), Cavan

Set amongst the karst landscape of the Burren, Co. Cavan, the ‘Cleaven Carraig’ is a sandstone erratic which has been split into three pieces. This site was chosen for excavation as it appeared that at this site people had begun to fashion a stone to use as a portal tomb capstone, but had never finished building the monument. Prior to excavation the stone to the south (Stone A) was clearly propped up by two smaller stones at its southern end while the eastern part of the stone was earthfast. Two cupmarks had been added to the southern and higher end of this stone. The second part of the erratic, Stone B, was level with the ground. A prop could be seen under the south-western edge of this stone, and a further five cupmarks were identified on the surface of the stone. A smaller fragment of Stone B lies to the north (Stone C).

The excavation trench measured 5m x 4m with a small extension to the east and was positioned to incorporate the majority of Stone A (003), the northern side of Stone B (004) and an area of limestone paving to the west. A series of later walls ran up to and incorporated the three large stones of Cleaven Carraig. Excavation revealed that Stone A was set over an elongated ‘horseshoe’-shaped pit [014] cut vertically into the limestone pavement. As surmised from pre-excavation observations, the north-east corner of Stone A had collapsed into this pit, and the supports either dislodged or broke. No material culture or human remains were found in the pit or surrounding Stone A. In contrast, there was no large cut pit beneath Stone B; instead a much shorter irregular cut [034] was visible on the southern and eastern side of Stone B, where it created the northern side of a limestone ‘tongue’ projecting between the eastern end of both stones A and B.

The Cleaven Carraig is clearly the remains of a stone which has been split into two main pieces. Possible flake scars on the edge of the stones indicate that this splitting was done by people as opposed to natural processes, and the cupmarks pecked into the surfaces of Stones A and B suggest that this took place either in, or prior to, the Bronze Age. The excavation revealed that a large elongated U-shaped pit had been cut into the limestone pavement beneath Stone A. The pit was completely devoid of any material culture or human remains, even though it could have functioned as a basic form of burial chamber. Since all other known forms of megalithic monument from the Neolithic and Bronze Age contain some form of deposit, the most likely interpretation for this site, therefore, is that it is not a monument per se, but it is the remains of a stone or stones which were designed to be made into a monument which was never completed. Indeed, the pit underneath Stone A would have been ideal for placing the stone onto a sled or roller to be moved. Its location close to two other known portal tombs, and a wedge tomb, is highly suggestive that this stone was being fashioned to make a capstone.

School of Forensic Science, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK