[Ardara, ancient, ancient Ireland, Donegal, dolmen, historic, Irish, Kilclooney, Portnoo, postcard, rectangular panoramas, stone, >500 >1,000" >2,000 >3,000 views, two features]

1. 22 nd May 2013 View Count reached 3,000

Featured in tow groups – see *History of this Image on RedBubble for details.
At Kilclooney-More there are two dolmens, both facing East, about 9m (20ft) apart.

These two remnants of ancient tombs are portal dolmens – the oldest type of archaeological structure found in Western Europe these examples date from about 4,000 – 5,000 years ago. They are older than Stonehenge, and of an age comparable to the earliest of the Egyptian pyramids.

The larger has a HUGE capstone (one of the largest in Ireland) – roughly triangular with a base of about 6m and a height of about 4m. The capstone is supported by twin uprights 1.8 m (6 ft) high.

The western chamber, now partially collapsed, is in similar proportions, but smaller. It can be seen here on the left edge of the photograph.

The site has not been formally excavated, a few fragments of undecorated Neolithic pottery were the only recorded finds. It is an officially listed Irish National Monument in the care of the “Board of Works”.

There is an interpretive Centre nearby.
The dolmen is about 400m from the road 4 miles or so North West of the town of Ardara, in South West Donegal

 
This photograph is part of my postcard range. You can follow on to another gorgeous Very Ireland Post card

 
History of this Image on RedBubble

1. *27th November 2010 uploaded to RedBubble
2. 11 January 2011 it had been viewed 102 times.
3. It has been featured in the Redbubble group All that is Archeological (on two separate occasions).
4. 9 September 2011 it had been viewed 500 times.
5. 6th February 2012 Featured in Theme Thursday – Feature Friday
6. 10th October 2012 it had been viewed 2003 times.

This image was cropped from a High Dynamic Range panorama, which in turn was stitched from a set of images shot in Raw mode on a Canon EOS 5d, with a 16mm Fisheye lens. They were stitched using a program called Hugin.

The source images were shot in groups of three, bracketed +2 and -2 stops. The HDR effect was created by a program called Enfuse.