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Megalithic monuments are found throughout Ireland, and include burial sites (including passage tombs, portal tombs and wedge tombs (or dolmens)) and ceremonial sites (such as stone circles and stone rows).
Fairy forts (also known as lios or raths from the Irish, referring to an earthen mound) are the remains of stone circles, ringforts, hillforts, or other circular prehistoric dwellings in Ireland. [1] From possibly the late Iron Age to early Christian times, people built circular structures with earth banks or ditches.
A stone row at Beaghmore. A cairn at Beaghmore.. There are seven low stone circles of different sizes, six of which are paired, twelve cairns and ten stone rows.The circles are between 10 and 20m in diameter, and are associated with earlier burial cairns and alignments of stone rows lead towards them.
The later Cornish term was quoit – an English-language word for an object with a hole through the middle preserving the original Cornish language term of tolmen – the name of another dolmen-like monument is in fact Mên-an-Tol 'stone with hole' (Standard Written Form: Men An Toll.) [6] In Irish Gaelic, dolmens are called Irish: dolmain. [7]
Poulnabrone is an English phonetic transcription of the Irish Poll na Brón. Brón is the genitive case of the Irish word bró, meaning quern, so the name means "Hole (or Pool) of the Quernstone". It is sometimes translated as "Hole of Sorrows" (Poll na mBrón). [5]
Drombeg stone circle (also known as The Druid's Altar) is a small axial stone circle located 2.4 km (1.5 mi) east of Glandore, County Cork, Ireland. [3] [4]Although not an especially significant example, Drombeg is one of the most visited megalithic sites in Ireland, and is protected under the National Monuments Act. [5]
The capstone is thought to have been covered by an earthen mound and a gate stone blocked the entrance. [citation needed] At Brownshill both portal stones and the gate-stone are still in situ; the capstone lies on top of the portals and gate-stone and slopes to the ground away from the entrance. [citation needed] The dolmen has not been excavated.
Portal tombs (often referred to as dolmens) are mainly located in the northern half of the country. Such tombs have a straight sided chamber often narrowed at the rear. The entrance is marked by tall portal stones. On top lies a huge single cap stone resting on the portal stones on the front and sloping at the rear where it rests on the backstone.