Keel East Court Tomb sits on the lower slopes of Slievemore Mountain on Achill Island in County Mayo. The tomb is aligned North-South with the court opening facing towards the mountain, and with beautiful views down past the tomb to the cliffs of Minaun and the ocean. There has been some collapse and possible removal of stones that make it hard to ascertain whether there were two or three chambers originally in the monument however the court and the rear chamber are in good condition. There is a stone at the entrance to the chamber which may have originally been the lintel stone. Thankfully the large roof stone on the rear chamber gives the structure a recognisable shape and form. This area has quite a few other megalithic monuments and there is meant to be another court tomb nearby however the day of our visit was the type of wet and cold only the Atlantic coast can muster so we didn’t search for too long! The Irish language scholar John O’Donovan visited Keel East in 1838 and in his Ordnance Survey letters made mention of the tomb having being larger in the recent past, he recounted the story of a miller from the area who took a stone from the tomb to use as a millstone, however the stone didn’t end up suitable and was discarded, like in many of these tales the miller died within the year!

GPS: 53.99991, -10.06011