Labbacallee wedge tomb

The wedge tomb is the largest wedge tomb in Ireland. The tomb has three massive capstones, with the largest weighing 10 tonnes, and three large buttress stones at the back.[2]

In 1934 excavations revealed a number of inhumations, fragments of a late Stone Age decorated pot, and fragments of bone and stone. Local folklore associates the site with the Celtic Hag-Goddess Cailleach Bheur, and during the excavations, the site was found to contain the remains of a woman. Although the body had been positioned within one chamber of the tomb, her skull was found in another chamber. .

The folklore behind the wedge tomb, as the translation "Hag's Bed" suggests, is that a hag lived at the site. The hag was wicked but her husband was a good-natured man and for this she hated him. One morning, when her husband was fishing down at the river Funshion, she rolled a boulder down in an attempt to kill him, her lucky husband however narrowly avoided the boulder for she had not rolled it strongly enough and it had gone slightly to the side. Her husband was upset by the hag's scheme and so the next morning when she was down by the river the husband rolled a boulder towards her which flattened and decapitated her. According to the story her body is buried in the tomb.

• "Labbacallee". The Megalithic Portal. Retrieved 14 June 2008.
• Noonan, Damien (2001). "Castles & Ancient Monuments of Ireland", Arum Press. ISBN 1-85410-752-6

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Labbacallee wedge tomb.

• Megalithic Ireland - Photographs of Labbacallee wedge tomb
• Megalithomania - Site plan and photographs of Labbacallee Wedge Tomb
• Ancient Ireland - Photographs of Labbacallee - Leaba Callighe - Hag's Bed