Irish Wedge Tombs

At a purely functional level, these megalithic tombs were repositories for human remains and the focus for associated funerary practices. The majority of wedge tombs were sealed, although some were built to allow ongoing access involving recurrent burial. With a few exceptions, wedge tombs had generally fallen out of use for human burial by the later Bronze Age, and by 1,500 BC single-burial sites had been widely adopted in different forms across Ireland.

Wedge Tombs - Muiris O'Sullivan and Liam Downey, 2010.

Wedge tombs are the fourth type of megalithic monument commonly found in Ireland, following after court tombs, portal dolmens and passage-graves. There is a fifth type of neolithic monument, known as Linkardstown cists, which are not so common, with some fifteen examples in Ireland. Wedge tombs seem to be a specifically Irish type of monument are generally thought to be the youngest of our stone age monuments, dating from the cusp of the neolithic and the Bronze age.

Towards a New European prehistory: genes, archaeology and language. The L'Orange lecture 2019. Speaker: Professor Kristian Kristiansen (University of Gothenburg).

The neolithic populations of Ireland, who began to arrive in large numbers from about 4,000 BC, soon replaced the indigenous mesolithic inhabitants of the island. The neolithic population in turn was replaced by bronze age warriors known as the Yamnaya, a group who originated in the Pontic Steppes, who had avoided the neolithic revolution. The current genetic revolution in European archaeology, where vast amounts of new information has been yeilded by Ancient DNA, has filled in many of the gaps in the story of the transition from the neolithic to the bronze age.

The Yamnaya swept across Europe with their horses, wagons and chariots, arriving in Ireland about 2,500 BC, where they rapidly replaced the neolithic population while adopting some of their customs and burial practices. One of the biggest differences between the neolithic and the bronze age is the change from communal burial in monuments like passage-graves, to single burials in cists, and cairns; however, the practice of communal burial continued in wedge tombs, often accompanied by fine examples of pottery.

Wedge tombs are the most common type of Irish megalith, with over 500 examples in the country, with the densest concentrations being found in the west. Wedge tombs are generally large stone boxes with a sloping roof slab, and are often oriented towards the west or southwest. They can be somewhat similar in appearance to portal dolmens. Like the other kinds of monuments, many, though not all would have originally been covered with a cairn of stones. Wedge tombs are often found close to other monument types.

The largest concentrations of of these monuments are found in the Burren in County Clare, where there are more than twenty examples in the Burren National Park at Parknabinna. There are many more examples to be found in the southwest region of Cork and Kerry, and they are quite common in Counties Mayo, Sligo and Donegal. Large and well preserved examples include Ballyedmonduff in County Dublin, Carrowcrom in County Mayo and Cabragh and Moytura in County Sligo, while Leabacallee in County Cork, which was excavated in 1934, is the largest wedge tomb in the country.

Labbacallee: Ireland's Largest Wedge Tomb

Labbacallee, the largest wedge tomb in Ireland, which is close to Fermoy in County Cork. Labbacallee holds the distinction of being the first Irish megalithic monument to be described by an antiquarian, when John Aubrey wrote an account of the monument in 1693. Labbacallee, The Bed of the Cailleach was the subject of one of the first excavations in the modern Irish State undertaken by Harold Leask and Liam Price in 1934. Five skeletons were discobered in the chamber, one with her head missing, though this was later found in another part of the monument.

In the local folklore, Labbacallee was the grave of the Cailleach, the powerful female deity of Irish mythology who was often the builder of megalithic tombs. The Cailleach, often known by the name Garavogue is more usually associated with the passage-graves at both Carrowmore and Loughcrew seems to be an echo of the neolithic goddess Inanna, the Queen of Heaven, who makes a journey to the Underworld to visit her sister Ereshkigal, ruler of the Land of the Dead. Inanna is disrobed, her jewellery is removed, and eventually her body is dismantled and she is dismembered and defleshed before returning three days later to the World of the Living.

Hidden Treasures

Wedge Tombs, dating to the bronze age when metal was in use, are often associated with hidden treasure, specifically gold, in local folklore. This is hardly surprising, since gold torcs and lunulae have been found or associated with a number of megalithic wedge tombs, most famously the Gleninsheen monument, below, close to Poulnabrone in County Clare. A local schoolboy, out shooting rabbits in 1930, found the famous Gleninsheen gold gorget, one of the finest examples known, in a gryke close to the megalithic chamber. Labbacallee also has legends about hidden treasure:

One night long ago, four men went digging for gold which was hidden by a hag in Labbacalle near Glanworth, Co. Cork. When the men had dug about two feet, a cat with a long fiery tail appeared to them. The light dazzled the four men and the cat hunted them to the river Funcheon near by. The four men fell into the river; one person got drowned and the three others swam across the river safely. The gold was never unearthed afterwards.

Source.

Another interesting story involving excavation of a wedge tomb occurred at Moytura in County Sligo in the 1870's. The passage-grave on Moytura known as Shee Lugh had been excavated by the wife of the local landlord, Lady Louisa Tennison, though no records were kept. Lady Louisa was looking for the bones of the mythological Irish hero, Lugh of the Long Arm, in order to win a bet with a member of the Rothschild family in London. She offered a financial reward to her husband's tenants to open local monuments and search for the bones of Lugh.

A local farmer and his wife opened a wedge tomb on their land and found a skeleton, which they attempted to bring to Lady Louisa at Kilronan House. However, they were arrested by the local Royal Irish Constabulary in Castlebaldwin. A gold collar or lunulae was also found during this search for bones, possibly in another wedge tomb in the same area which was destroyed during land clearance.

Dating of Irish Wedge Tombs

A great number of wedge tombs have been excavated. Ballyedmonduff in County Dublin, and another monument close by were excavated in the 1950's. The wedge tomb at Island in County Cork was excavated by Michael J. O'Kelly in 1958, shortly before he bagan his famous excavation at Newgrange.

The Island tomb consists of a well-preserved burial chamber with an orthostatic walling of continuous narrow slabs, contained within a second, similar wall approximately one metre outside, the whole constituting a heel-shaped structure. This in turn stood within a concentric ring of sockets. The burials recovered consisted of three separate cremations, two of which were accompanied by a small flint scraper, deposited in the chamber. The construction and use of the monument were thought by the excavator to relate to one phase of activity. The excavator's argument that the original monument had consisted of a cairn extending to the outer ring of sockets was based on the presence of altered clay on the old ground surface extending to the outer setting.

A hearth and charcoal were found immediately outside the kerb and charcoal also occurred in one of the sockets (H) of the outer ring. O'Kelly argued that the charcoal was probably contemporary with the digging of the socket because of the scorching visible on the sides of the socket. The loose cairn material which overlay the hearth was considered as primary in situ cairn material and the hearth as predating the cairn. A sample of charcoal from the hearth produced a date of 3100 + 140 BP, somewhat later than expected. A replica sample and a second sample from socket H were subsequently dated and confirmed the previous result. These were interpreted as indicating a late date for the construction and use of this tomb.

Radiocarbon Dates from Wedge Tombs
Authors: A. L. Brindley and J. N. Lanting.

From modern dating it would appear that communal burial was practiced in the earlier part of the bronze age, between 2,500 and 1,500 BC. After that time single burials in cists or small cairns, often with pottery included, became more common.

The Drumcliffe Wedge

A very fine example of a wedge tomb is found at Coolbeg close to Drumcliffe in County Sligo. The monument was examined by local antiquarian William Gregory Wood-Martin, who believed he had found megalithic art on one of the stones. The following is the report on the monument from the National Monuments Service:

This fine monument was first shown on the 1940-41 edition of the OS 6-inch map. It is situated some 300 meters to the West of Drumcliff and stands in a field of damp pasture about fifty meters to the North of the Drumcliff River.

The monument consists of a long gallery flanked at either side by outer-walling. This is best preserved at the North where it is linked to the gallery by two facade-stones. There is a fallen facade stone at the opposite side but the only outer wall stones at the South are three orthostats towards the East end of the structure.

A field fence incorporates two of these and crosses the back of the gallery. There are no traces of cairn around the structure but there is a considerable amount of fill in the front part of the gallery and also between the gallery and the first five outer-wall stones to the north.

The gallery is eleven meters in length. It is 1·80 meters wide at the front, increases to two meters towards the middle and is 1·60 meters wide at the back. The stone at the west end of the north side is largely concealed. It is at least 70 centimeters long and is 80 centimeters high. The other nine orthostats here are from 60 centimeters to 1·10 meters in length and 25 centimeters to 60 centimeters in thickness. They decrease in height from 80 centimeters at the west to 25 centimeters at the east.

A tour of the Coolbeg Wedge Tomb with Leo Leydon.

The largely concealed stone at the west end of the opposite side is at least 90 centimeters long and is 90 centimeters high. The status of the stone immediately outside this is uncertain. It is 70 centimeters long, 20 centimeters thick and 1·10 meters high. The other eight side-stones here are 50 centimeters to 1·20 meters in length and 15 centimeters to 40 centimeters in thickness. Their heights vary from 20 centimeters to 70 centimeters but a general decrease in height from west to east is not apparent.

The gallery backstone does not achieve full closure and there is a gap of 35 centimeters between it and the north side-wall. It measures l·l0 meters by 30 centimeters by centimeters high. A roofstone, 2·40 meters by 1·20 meters by 40 centimeters thick, lies across the entrance to the gallery and another towards the East end measures 2·20 meters by 1·70 meters by 40 centimeters thick. The edge of what seems to be a third roof stone protrudes from the fill occupying the front end of the gallery.

There is a gap of 1·20 meters in the north line of outer-walling. The eight stones here are 80cm to 1·50m in length, 25cm to 40 centimeters in thickness and 35 centimeters to one meter in height. The three surviving outer-wall stones at the south are 60 centimeters to 80 centimeters in length, 30 centimeters thick, and 30 centimeters to 50 centimeters in height.

The fallen facade stone measures 1·40 meters by 70 centimeters and if erect would be about 1·30 meters high. The facade stone on the opposite side of the entrance is split down its long axis. It measures 1·30 meters by 50 centimeters by one meter high and the orthostat linking this to the outer wall measures 1·40 meters by 40 centimeters by 90 centimeters high.

The monument is in much the same condition as it was in Wood-Martin's time though his plan does show a line of four contiguous outer-wall stones adjoining the south facade stone.