Free public lecture on Milltown tomb excavations

WANT to find out more about one of Kerry and Ireland’s earliest monuments? Then a visit to Milltown Community Hall on Thursday, May 3 at 8pm is the place to be where County Archaeologist Dr Michael Connolly will explain the significance of discoveries made during excavations at Killaclohane Portal Tomb. The free public lecture promises to be an exciting insight into the information gleaned from the excavations which have been ongoing since 2015.

It’s one of the earliest man-made structures, and knowledge of its importance and place in the landscape is not just significant to the ancient history of Milltown, but also Kerry as it’s one of the earliest known burial sites, dating to roughly 4,000BC. Moreover, the site holds important evidence of some of the earliest agricultural activity in north-west Europe.

Excavations commenced in 2015 when a team of archaeologists undertook conservation works to repair the tomb’s capstone which started to slip off the portal’s supporting stones. The top stone was momentarily taken off allowing excavations to take place in its interior. The excavations revealed cremated remains of humans, arrowheads, Neolithic pottery and scrapers.

Portal tombs are one of four main groups of prehistoric tombs found in Ireland, the others being court tombs, passage tombs and wedge tombs, of which the latter is quite common in Kerry, particularly in south Kerry.

The structural composition of portal tombs consists of a chamber area with large upright stones supporting a capstone that sits at an angle. The tombs were first used as symbolic markers in the landscape and as burial chambers by Ireland’s earliest farming communities who gradually moved from a hunter-gatherer type subsistence during the Mesolithic era to a more agriculturally based existence sometime around 4,000 BC when settlers first started to cultivate the landscape for farming purposes.

Meanwhile, the organisers of Fleadh Cheoil Chiarraí in Milltown are holding a Family Fun Walk to the historic 6,000-year-old Killaclohane Portal Tomb on Bank Holiday Monday, May 7. It’s to help raise funds for the festival and to promote a Summer Solstice Celebration at the tomb which will form part of the Fleadh programme in June.

Participants are invited to join the sponsored walk from the Nagle Rice Community Centre to the Portal Tomb at 10.30am on the day. The tomb at Killaclohane is the oldest man-made structure in Kerry and it’s no surprise that the committee consider it a key part of its cultural heritage.

The special open-air celebration at the tomb takes place on the Summer Solstice (June 21), the second day of the festival. “This Family Fun Walk is aimed at promoting Killaclohane Portal Tomb and getting kids and their families, and anyone else who wants to join in, to walk the mile or so from the village to the tomb and back,” said PRO of Fleadh Cheoil Chiarraí Chris Horan.

The Killaclohane Portal Tomb in Milltown is the subject of next Thursday’s talk at the community hall.