dolmen

dolmen [Bret. tol, table; men, stone]. A large prehistoric monument found throughout the Celtic world, usually made of two or more large, rough stones set on end and capped with a huge single stone or several stones, especially in Brittany or Ireland; capstones may weigh as much as 40 tons. In Wales and Cornwall preferred usage favours cromlech [W crom, bent; llech, flat stone], although cromlech may also imply a more circular monument. Peter Harbison (1988) argues that the dolmen should more accurately be called the portal tomb or chamber, but the older, more popular usage persists.

In Ireland dolmens are often called ‘Beds of Diarmait and Gráinne’ from the belief that the fleeing lovers may have slept on them in their escape from Fionn. In Irish folklore the stones were thought to induce barrenness in women who strayed near them. In Cornwall cromlechs/dolmens were thought to be the quoits or playthings of giants, and the recesses in them the marks of giants' fingers. At many times they were thought to be druids' altars, or, more commonly, ‘druids' tables’, from the unfounded assumption that they dated from the time of the druids. Modern archaeology suggests, however, that they were built as tombs by pre-Celtic peoples.

More than 161 dolmens may be found in Ireland; other outstanding examples are at Callernish, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, and at Carnac and Essé in Brittany. Comparable monuments are found as far away as Japan.