The remains of court-tombs are usually sprawling and untidy, and thus are eminently suited to the degraded, litter-strewn and increasingly bungaloid landscapes of Ireland. Their handsome offspring, however, known as
Portal-tombs, are paragons of compactness in their ruination - for very few survive intact.

They are, moreover, wonderfully sculptural, and fine subjects for photography, whereas court-tombs are very difficult to photograph except in detail.
Often they are referred to as dolmens: an antiquarian term which is Frenchified fake-Breton for 'stone table'.

The most striking feature of portal-tombs is the massive capstone of the single chamber, supported on two portal-stones, between which a door-stone often survives. Occasionally, a free-standing pillar-stone beside the portal-stones suggests a harking back to a forecourt-tradition - for these sepulchres, built at the end of long cairns, are a kind of extremely refined and compact court-tomb.

One or both surfaces of the capstones are almost always tilted at an angle not too far from 30 degrees, whose serious significance is lost in the fog of time.

Chocking-stones were often inserted to ensure not just stability but the correct angle, indicating a construction perhaps more precise than might be supposed. A good example is at Kilclooney More in Donegal - but the most startling use of chockers that I have encountered is in the Dordogne.

The large capstones (up to 100 tonnes in weight) were most likely raised by a simple and effective system of logs used as rollers, strong wooden poles used as levers (which also acted as brakes) and a ramp.

(sketch after Bruno Marc)

In some tombs the capstones are double, a larger one partly supported by a smaller to the rear of the tomb.

The most appealing and remarkable feature of portal-dolmens compared with other megaliths is the alteration in appearance according to the angle of view. In this they are truly sculptural.

Whereas court-tombs are concentrated in the North and West of Ireland, especially on upland at around 200 metres, portal-tombs also occur in the East, South and South-West of the island, sometimes on quite low ground near the coasts - as with court-tombs. Most are tucked away in less open places than the court-tombs,
and just a few, such as the Brenanstown dolmen now in a Dublin suburb,

and "The Labby" in county Sligo,

are hidden away in hollows.
For a report on recent 'vandalism' to this tomb, click here.

But most, like Legananny in county Down,

the little dolmen at Altdrumman in county Tyrone,

and the spectacular ruin at Muntermellan in Donegal,

command impressive vistas.

The tomb at Legananny in county Down is oriented so that the underside of the dramatic roofstone and the tip of the backstone are lit by the early-morning sun around the winter solstice - a feature well-known in certain famous passage-tombs, but not generally associated with portal-tombs, which can, more than any other type of megalith, triumph over present-day indignity,

and some may house the living in the future,

as they did in the past.

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