05/06/2008: Surrounded by scrub woodland and thus unsurveyable. Axis c.124°.
Has been excavated and dated to 5,500 BP. Lots of mostly human bone was found in the two chambers, some cremated but most not. There were at least eighteen individuals, of both sexes and all ages. Finds included potsherds, bone and stone beads, two bone items that are probably opposing ends of a barbell-shaped toggle, leaf-shaped arrowheads, various lithic scraping and cutting implements, some débitage, quartz crystals and a few limpet shells. The forecourt is very narrow and straight-sided, about as wide as the chambers, while the cairn is roughly circular or U-shaped.
The excavator states that this may be a regional variety of "chambered" tomb as the nearby Ballyganner North and Leamaneh North "Court Tombs" have similarly narrow courts. He also suggests that the classification of all three as court tombs should perhaps be tentative until their relationship to other court tombs is better understood. Shanballyedmond in Tipperary has a similarly narrow court and the earliest date obtained there was 4930 BP.
References
- JONES, CARLETON & GILMER ALIX 1998 Clare 1998:053 CLARE 153, ROUGHAN HILL, PARKNABINNIA. www.excavations.ie
- JONES, CARLETON 1999 Clare 1999:062 PARKNABINNIA. www.excavations.ie
- JONES, CARLETON 2000 Clare 2000:0099 CLARE 153, PARKNABINNIA. www.excavations.ie
- JONES, CARLETON 2001 Clare 2001:086 153, Parknabinnia. www.excavations.ie
- BECKETT, JESSICA & JONES, CARLETON 2002 Preliminary assessment of the bone remains at the Parknabinnia Chambered Tomb (Cl 153) on Roughan Hill. The Other Clare 26: 5-7.