Labbacallee (County Cork) is spectacular. Carrowcrom (County Mayo) is lovely. Magheranaul is brilliant! What a lovely example this is.

This tomb is actually very similar to Carrowcrom, but it is more complete and more untouched. It too has some cairn material around its gallery and all the stones of the gallery (including the roof) are present. What makes this site so special is its appaarent remoteness (although it's not really all that remote) and the doorstone.

This is still in situ, but has been prized open so that it leand forward slightly, allowing access into the gallery. What really adds to the tomb is the hole pierced in the doorslab. This seems to have been made by drilling through the front of the stone to meet a natural hollow on the back of the stone.

A bit of folklore says that this was a giant's house and when thunder rumbled he would retreat into his lair , put a finger through the hole and shut the door behind him.

Unfortunately, the profusion of rock-art in the vicinity escaped my attentions: it started raining very heavily and I didn't feel like trudging around fields looking for it. I'll be back though, but I suspect that much of it will have grown over by now.

The rock art in the nearby fields was destroyed during field clearance in 1988.