The Portal Dolmen is made from large undressed slabs of stone. Two big ones stand face to face, forming a doorway into the single burial chamber. Portal means doorway, and these stones are called the portal stones. Behind this, smaller slabs were placed in a rectangle to form the walls of the chamber. A giant capstone is placed on top, supported at the front by the portal stones and at the back by one or more of the stones around the chamber. The capstone generally slopes at an angle of about 30 degrees to the horizontal. Some examples, especially those in Cornwall, have frontages of standing stones but more usually there is a forecourt in front of the entrance. Often the entrance faces east but in the case of portal dolmens built on a slope, the entrance always faces uphill.
A round or rectangular cairn was erected over the top of the chamber. The remains of the dead person was placed in the chamber and a flat stone was placed between the portal stones to block up the doorway.
Portal dolmen sites fringe the Irish Sea and are found in south east Ireland, Wales and Cornwall. Examples have also been found in northern Ireland where they may have co-existed with the Court cairn tombs . It is thought that the portal dolmens themselves evolved from a simpler cist burial method.
In Ireland, however, portaldolmens are more to be found on the west coast, particularly the Burren and Connemara, where the some of the more well known examples, such as Poulnabrone, are to be found.
It is thought that the portaldolmens themselves evolved from a simpler cist burial method.
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