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'Listoghil' : Passage Tomb

TownlandCarrowmore
CountySligo
Grid RefG 663 335
Longitude8° 31' 1.4" W
Latitude54° 14' 56.94" N
Nearest TownSligo (3.9 Km)
OS Sheet25
UTM zone29U
UTM x531467.42394416
UTM y6011350.4876912

This is a subsite of:

Carrowmore - Passage Tomb Cemetery
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Visit Notes

Sunday, 4th May 2003

Listoghil is tomb 51. It is the only tomb here to have a cairn covering it. Its excavation has thrown up some serious questions which are very interesting.

The carin has a kerb made up of 107 stones and is around 32m in diameter. This kerb could be earlier than the burial chamber. The chamber was erected on the highest and most central spot on the plateau. Most of the other tombs seem to point towards this spot, giving the location a massive significance. This does not mean that the tomb was the focus though, as this is much newer than the original activity on this spot.

Beneath the tomb is a bed of clay/morraine that was set into a large, round pit purposely dug to hold the substance. This seems to have been used as a funeral pyre location on many occacions.

The tomb, to me, seems to be a later structure, perhaps erected by an invading force to claim and defile the previous inhabitants sacred centre. When I stated this I was told that one possible translation of Listoghil is 'The Fort of the Overthrow'.

The chamber is very different to anything else at Carrowmore. It seems to be more of a proto-wedge-tomb than anything else. Eight large stones form the walls and a large slab covers the entire area. A few odd boulders under the cairn were interpreted by the excavators as possible signs of an earlier structure.

It is not possible to get to the tomb itself now, but a viewing gallery has been erected so that you can look down onto it. It is one of the only carved structures in Sligo, with a wave-like motif on the front edge of the capstone and an 'Om'-like carving on the inside of the doorstone.

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Random Gazetteer

A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments

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8.6 Km (N) there is a Round Tower at Drumcliff.
8.2 Km (WSW) there is a Chambered Cairn at Carrowkeel.
6 Km (WNW) there is a Court Tomb at Strandhill.
200 m (N) there is a Passage Tomb Cemetery at Carrowmore.
9 Km (N) there is a Wedge Tomb at Coolbeg.

A Selection of Other Passage Tombs

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