| Altar Wedge Tomb | |||||||||
| Native Name: | Tuama Dingeach na hAltóra | ||||||||
| Native Language: | ga | ||||||||
| Other Name: | Altar Cromlech | ||||||||
| Coordinates: | 51.5138°N -9.644°W | ||||||||
| Location: | Altar, Schull, County Cork, Ireland | ||||||||
| Built: | c. 2500 BC | ||||||||
| Type: | wedge-shaped gallery grave | ||||||||
| Embedded: |
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Altar Wedge Tomb is a wedge-shaped gallery grave and national monument located outside the village of Schull, in County Cork, Ireland.[2]
Altar Wedge Tomb is located 6.7 km (4.2 mi) WSW of Schull, on a cliffedge near Toormore Bay.[3]
Wedge tombs of this kind were built in Ireland in the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, c. 2500–2000 BC.[4]
Cremated burials took place in 2000 BC and pit burials c. 1200 BC. Around AD 200 a pit was dug and filled in with fish, shellfish and cetacean bones, presumably as a ritual practice.[5]
Despite the name, there is no evidence that the "altar" was ever used for sacrifice. It was used as a Mass rock in the 18th century AD.[6] A holy well stood across the road.
It was excavated in summer 1989 by Dr. William O'Brien and Madeline Duggan. Material found included cremated human adult bones, a tooth, worked flint, charcoal, periwinkles, fish bones and limpets.[7]
The entrance was aligned ENE–WSW, possibly with Mizen Peak (Carn Uí Néit) and maybe to catch the setting sun at Samhain (1 November).[8]
The tomb consists of a trapezoidal orthostatic gallery 3.42m (11.22feet) long, 1.9m (06.2feet) wide at the west end 1.25m (04.1feet) at the east.
A roof-stone 2.7m (08.9feet) long, is still above the east end, and a second rests against the westerly stones at either side of the gallery. There is no cairn material or evidence of kerbstones; they may have been removed for road construction in the 19th century AD.[7] [9]