Overview
Be honest with yourself about what Carbad More is before you make the trip. It’s a rare and genuinely old thing – a Neolithic double court cairn, National Monument No 631 – but it is severely ruined: almost none of the covering cairn survives, both galleries are thick with vegetation for much of the year, and modern farm tracks have been driven straight through it. This is a site for people who already love megaliths and can read a jumble of stones. Casual visitors will find an overgrown pasture with some big rocks in it.
What makes it worth the effort for the initiated is the layout. Carbad More has two almost-circular courts, one at each end, each opening onto its own segmented burial gallery, with the galleries set back-to-back in the middle. That double-court plan is uncommon even within Ireland’s court-tomb tradition. It stands about 3.6km northwest of Killala, County Mayo, in a dense prehistoric landscape of wedge tombs, standing stones and ring forts.
History and archaeology
The cairn was probably built around 4000–3500 BC, in the early centuries of farming in Ireland, when communities raised stone monuments to bury their dead, mark territory and honour ancestors. The two courts here are thought to have begun as separate structures, later brought together with their galleries back-to-back.
Over the millennia both cairns lost nearly all their stone-and-earth covering, leaving only the court outlines and fragments of gallery wall above ground. The site was recorded by archaeologists in the 1960s, and the worst of the modern damage came after that: a farm track now cuts through the north-east court, and a second runs between the two galleries – a plain illustration of the tension between working farmland and monument survival.
What to see
Coming in from the minor road off the R314, the first thing you reach is the western (south-west) court, the better-preserved half. Its arc of stones is most intact on the north-east side, either side of the gallery entrance, and includes a cluster of ten uprights forming the portal. Directly opposite the entrance stands a single upright, usually read as a flank stone that helped define the court.
The eastern (north-east) court is more broken up, with the modern track cutting through it, though its circular shape is still traceable on the ground. Both galleries are heavily overgrown, which limits close inspection. The side walls survive reasonably well; the back walls are gone. Between the chambers, pairs of upright jambs mark the segmentation, and on the north-west side of the galleries a few stones stand set perpendicular to the tomb axis – possibly surviving buttress stones.
Getting there and parking
By car – From Killala, follow the R314 north for roughly 2km, then turn off onto the minor road to a farm gate set back from the road beside a small, overgrown ruined building. A short grass track leads from the gate to the tomb. There is no signage at the site.
Parking – A basic gravel lay-by opposite the gate takes a couple of cars; there are no bins or toilets. Otherwise park in Killala village near the harbour.
Public transport – The nearest bus stop is in Killala. From there you’ll need a local taxi or a 3.6km walk, as no regular service reaches the site.
Visiting tips
- Footwear: Sturdy boots. The ground is uneven and the gallery entrances are usually muddy or slick with grass.
- Navigation: Mobile signal drops off once you turn off the R314. Load the coordinates (54.236656 N, 9.256804 W) beforehand, or bring OS sheet 24.
- Best time to visit: Summer brings brambles and nettles into the galleries; early spring or late autumn gives clearer sightlines.
- Livestock: This is working farmland. Keep dogs on a short lead and watch for grazing cattle or sheep.
- Etiquette: The monument is legally protected. Stay on the grass track, don’t lean on or move stones, and take everything out with you.
Nearby sites
Carbad More sits in a tight cluster of prehistoric monuments, easily combined into a half-day:
- Rathfranpark Wedge Tomb (about 670m north-north-east) – a wedge tomb close enough to walk to.
- Breastagh Standing Stone (about 1km north) – a tall upright in the fields north of the tomb.
- Rathlackan Court Tomb (about 6.3km north-north-west) – another court tomb, excavated and set within an early field system.
- Kilcummin (about 1.6km north-west) – a small coastal parish with marked walking routes.
For a bigger day out, the Céide Fields, the oldest known field system in the world, lie further west along the north Mayo coast.