4 Tombs to Explore in Munster

Ballynageeragh Portal Tomb is a dolmen and National Monument situated in County Waterford, Ireland. Its oval capstone measures 4 metres in length and 2.65 in width, it rests on the door-stone, and a cushion stone is situated between the capstone and the backstone. There are around ten portal tombs within a radius of twenty kilometres from here with the finest examples at Gaulstown and Knockeen plus many standing stones and a few passage tombs all very accessible.

This tomb is situated near the peak of a small but steep hill outside the village of Galbally in County Limerick, overlooking the River Loobagh valley to the north. It is an unusual structure as passage tombs of this size are rare in that part of the country another curious aspect is its three roof stones which are rested on top of one another, a style very common in Brittany. According to legend, it was the burial place of Ailill Aulom , a King of Munster.

This is the Ireland’s largest monument of this type. This was the first megalithic tomb in the country to be described by an antiquarian writer, in John Aubrey’s manuscript of 1693. The gallery is covered by three massive capstones, the largest weighs around ten tonnes and the tomb has three large buttress stones at the rear.

Poulnabrone Dolmen is Ireland’s oldest megalithic monument and an epic portal tomb made up of massive stones. It is the best known and most often photographed of the almost 200 dolmens in Ireland because of its near perfect symmetry. Excavations at the site in the 1980's CE uncovered human remains and grave goods, establishing the site as an ancient tomb, but it may have served other purposes as well.