Glossary L-P

Late Bronze Age: This is the last part of the Bronze Age and dates from around 1200 BC to the beginnings of the Iron Age around 600 BC.

Lintel: A slab of stone in a megalithic tomb laid horizontally on jambs to span the opening between them.

Loop: A narrow vertical slit of various forms in a wall or angle of two walls allowing the firing of projectiles such as arrows or bullets.

Machicolation: An opening in a projecting parapet or fighting platform in a defensive building such as a castle. It is supported on projecting stones through which stones or other missiles could be dropped on attackers.

Megaliths or megalithic tombs: (from the Greek megas lithos - 'big stone') These were primarily built during the Neolithic period (c.4000 - 2500BC) but some wedge tombs being built up to c.1700BC. As well as acting as burial sites, their primary function may have been ritual in nature and possibly related to ancestor worship. People today are still amazed at the scale of some of these constructions. The Labby Rock portal tomb's capstone weighs an incredible c.70 tonnes and Heapstown Cairn is 60m in diameter and 10m high with a volume of about 13,000 cubic metres of stone. Megaliths have been classified into four different types based on the shape and form of the monument - court tombs, portal tombs, passage tombs and wedge tombs.

Merlon: On a wall-walk with a parapet this is the solid part of the battlements or crenellation - the toothed upper part of the parapet formed of crenels (the gap) and merlons (the solid part).

Mezzanine: A floor or chamber in a building that does not correspond in level with adjoining chambers. This is also called an entresol.

Mouldings: An ornamental outline in the edges or surrounds of parts of buildings.

Mural Tower: A tower built into a wall, usually used in describing castle defences.

Nave: The main body of a church, west of the chancel, for use by the congregation.

Neolithic: ('New Stone Age' c.4000BC to c.2500BC) This is when animals such as cattle and sheep, and plants such as wheat arrived in Ireland along with new types of stone tools and the introduction of pottery. Small groups of people came to Ireland by log or skin boats and brought these new innovations which were adopted by the indigenous population of hunter gathers. The most visible, impressive and enduring Neolithic monuments are the megaliths. These remarkable feats of architecture were a monumental expression of the social complexity of the period. The arrival of farming brought radical changes to the landscape with major clearances of forests and the creation of tillage plots and field systems. The polished stone axe made from porcellanite, flint, or other suitable stone is probably the most characteristic stone tool from the period, along with hollow and round scrapers, knives and arrowheads made from flint or chert.

Parapet: A low wall above the gutter level of a roof, or along the top of a wall, sometimes with battlements or crenellation - the toothed upper part of the parapet formed of crenels (the gap) and merlons (the solid part).

Passage tombs: These generally have a narrow passage leading to a roofed chamber. Smaller chambers sometimes open off the main chamber and occasionally produce a cross shaped or cruciform plan. The roofs were mainly corbelled and the structure was covered in a circular shaped cairn generally edged by kerbstones. An example is the possible passage tomb at Heapstown. Simple passage tombs also occur, comprising a polygonal chamber with a capstone and are often surrounded by a circle of boulders. These simple passage tombs tend to be earlier in date than the more complex ones and examples are at Abbey Quarter and Carrowmore.

Penitential cairn: These are associated with sites of pilgrimage and were used in conjunction with or in the same way as holy wells, where rounds and prayers would be said while walking clockwise around it. They consist as a pile of stones and pilgrims would often carry a stone to the site and leave it on the cairn as an offering.

Piscina: A basin with a drain hole found in churches and used for washing the sacred vessels. They are usually found in a small recess in the chancel or beside side altars.

Portal stones: These are the two tall upright stones at the entrance to portal tombs.Portal tombs are often spectacular in appearance due to the impressively sized capstone, which covered a single chamber. Most have two tall upright stones (portals) set at the front of the monument so that the capstone rises at the front. Some appear to have been located at the end of a long cairn of stones. The Labby Rock and Tawnatruffaun are both examples of portal tombs.
Portcullis: A gate of iron bars or wood covered in iron made to slide up and down in slots in the gateways of castles.