Megalithic Dolmen

The sun sets eerily behind the Knockeen Portal Tomb, a megalith near Tramore in County Waterford, Ireland. Over 3.5 metres high, it’s the largest dolmen in County Waterford and one of the finest examples in Ireland, albeit unclear exactly what it was used for…

It could have served a spiritual purpose and been used by local shamans or druids for various spiritual rituals. Or may be the burial site of a local Déisi chieftain, a socially powerful class of peoples from Ireland and the subject of a famous medieval Irish epic tale, “The Expulsion of the Déisi”. First written sometime in the eighth century, is a pseudo-historical legend for the medieval Kingdom of Déisi Muman, and tells the story of a sept (family division) called the Dal Fiachach Suighe, who were expelled from Tara in Leinster by their kinsmen and forced to wander homeless. After a southward migration and many battles, part of the sept eventually settled in Munster.

This mound in some remote and dateless day
Rear’d o’er a Chieftain of the Age of Hills,
May here detain thee Traveller! from thy road
Not idly lingering. In his narrow house
Some Warrior sleeps below: his gallant deeds
Haply at many a solemn festival
The Bard has harp’d, but perish’d is the song
Of praise, as o’er these bleak and barren downs
The wind that passes and is heard no more.
Go Traveller on thy way, and contemplate
Glory’s brief pageant, and remember then
That one good deed was never wrought in vain…Robert Southey

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