The Cavan Burren is an absolutely fantastic place, comparatively not a tenth as well known as the classic west of Ireland ‘Burren’ and its proximity to the border with the North probably doesn’t help, but its a fantastic place and should really not be overlooked. The Burren ‘park’ is dotted with tombs, rock art and erratics all overlooked by the breathtaking Cuilcagh Mountain. This Wedge Tomb dates to around 2,500 BC and measures approximately 12 metres in length. There is one capstone still in place and a further two displaced. From the tomb if you look across to Cuilcagh Mountain, with its cairn tomb on it eastern summit, you will note that the Calf-House Portal Tomb (previous featured here) and a modified glacial erratic boulder are all aligned. Tullygobban is aligned with the setting sun on the Winter Solstice. The name of the tomb is Tulaigh an Ghobáin, this references the Gobán Saor, a master craftsman of Irish Folklore. From the beautiful monasteries in the west of Ireland to these Neolithic tombs the Gobán Saor is meant to have built it all! There are some schools of thought that believe he was a real individual from the 6th century. It was quite easy to see from looking at these monuments why a people may ascribe the building of these fantastically large tombs to a folkloric legend such as a the Gobán Saor as a way of nicely packaging the answer to whom built these structures and how. I highly recommend a visit to the Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Global Geopark which stretches across both sides of the border and do hope in future it gets the recognition within Ireland that an international organisation such as UNESCO can clearly see.

GPS: 54.26612, -7.88667