Matthewstown Passage Tomb
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Matthewstown Passage Tomb is a passage tomb situated in
County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region. It is named ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.


Location

The tomb is located 1.6 km (1 mile) north of
Fenor Fenor, officially Fennor (), is a village in County Waterford, Ireland. The village itself is quite small, consisting almost entirely of the local school, pub, and parish church. It is on the R675 road around west of Tramore. History Stone ...
. Most of the surrounding countryside is visible, to the
Comeragh Mountains The Comeragh Mountains () are a glaciated mountain range situated in southeast Ireland in County Waterford. They are located between the town of Dungarvan and stretch inland to the town of Clonmel on the County Tipperary border and the villages ...
.


History

Matthewstown Passage Tomb dates to 2500–2000 BC. It is locally known as Thomas McCabe's Bed; this may have been the name of a local
outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
who supposedly spent a night here: cf. the many " Diarmuid and Gráinne's Beds" This is one of a group of small passage tombs in County Waterford with affinities to the tombs in
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
and the Scilly Isles, hence the name "Scilly-Tramore group," suggesting that the builders were seafarers from Cornwall.


Description

Matthewstown Passage Tomb is 4.5 m (fifteen feet) long and about 1.8 m (six feet) wide. There are two rows of five orthostats protruding above the ground to about 1 metre (three-and-a-half feet). This grave was covered by four large stone slabs.


References

{{Reflist Archaeological sites in County Waterford Buildings and structures in County Waterford National monuments in County Waterford