Its a sad indication of the plight of many Irish people in the the middle of the 19^th century that Nellie’s Rock is the second tomb, the other being Haroldstown Dolmen, I have visited that during those dark years were inhabited by a small family. It has made my visits to both sites quite haunting and humbling, standing there and trying to imagine the lives of the people who filled in the gaps between the stones with mud and straw, in an effort to provide cover from what at times would have been a very hostile climate. There was part of me that thought it somewhat beautiful that these places built to protect our ancestors in death were able to provide shelter for a family at a pitiful time, but perhaps thats viewing it all a bit too romantically! Indeed Nellie’s Rock is named after a woman who raised a small child there around the 1850s, it appears to be a portal tomb but the site is somewhat debated. There is an adjoining cist grave and other stone alignments in the same field so it appears the area was quite densely inhabited in Neolithic times and of some significance. The site is also known as the Lecarrow Stones on account of its somewhat unclassified nature.

GPS: 53.54451, -8.05426