Poulnabrone Dolmen

Poulnabrone is a portal tomb of the Neolithic: two tall upright slabs and a backstone carrying a thin capstone that tilts towards the sky, set on the bare limestone pavement of the Burren with almost nothing else around it. Excavation in the 1980s recovered the remains of a number of adults and children placed in the chamber over several centuries, along with pottery and stone tools, and the dates put its use well before three thousand BC. The tomb was partly rebuilt after that work, when a cracked upright had to be replaced. A low rope keeps visitors off the stones and a short boardwalk crosses the fissured rock.

History

The name means "hole of the quernstone". The dolmen was built by Neolithic farmers on karst limestone laid down around 350 million years ago, perhaps for ritual, as a territorial marker or as a collective burial site, and excavations in 1986 and 1988 found the remains of around 33 people (Wikipedia, Poulnabrone dolmen).

The main sights

• The capstone - a single thin slab tilted on the uprights, lighter-looking than it appears in photographs.
• The low cairn - the remains of the stone mound the chamber once sat within.
• The limestone pavement - grey rock split into blocks and deep grikes in every direction.
• The Burren flora - flowers rooted in the cracks, at their best in late spring.

When to go

May and June bring the Burren flowers out of the limestone cracks and give the clearest light. The car park fills through the middle of the day in summer, and coaches on the Cliffs of Moher circuit stop here, so early morning or evening gives you the tomb almost alone. Winter is quiet, wet and often very windy.

Things to know

The stop lasts ten minutes. The tomb is roped off so you circle it at a distance, the road runs right beside it, and the car park is small for the traffic it takes. In midsummer a steady line of people waits to photograph it without others in frame. The pavement is slippery and ankle-turning off the boardwalk.

Nearby

Caherconnell stone fort is a short distance south; Ballyvaughan and the coast lie north.

Key facts