'Hole of the Quernstone'[2]) is a large dolmen (or cromlech,[3] a type of single-chamber portal tomb) located in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland.

The dolmen was built by Neolithic farmers, who chose the location either for ritual, as a territorial marker, or as a collective burial site.

[citation needed][7] The monument may have also served as a territorial marker in the Neolithic landscape, in a position visible from all around and close to the important north-south route from Ballyvaughan Bay south to the region where Kilnaboy village now stands.

[8] It is possible that the local settlers erected the dolmen to delimit the northern border of their territory,[9] and later used for burials for successive generations.

Unusually for an Irish dolmen, but typical of those found in County Clare, the capstone slopes upward towards the west.

[3] Poulnabrone dolmen consists of a slab-like tabular capstone (or table-stone) supported by two pillar stones on either side which create a chamber that tapers eastwards.

The capstone and north and south pillars form a chamber which is 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) long, and tapers eastwards due to the relative height of the supporting stones.

Two phases of conservation were undertaken in 1986 and 1988, and were overseen by Ann Lynch, Senior Archaeologist at the National Monuments Service.

[19][20] Although it was usually difficult—or impossible—to distinguish the remains of each individual, Lynch estimates that at least 17 were adolescent or younger, while there was roughly an equal amount of males and females.

[22] Dental pathology, including the wearing of the upper front teeth, indicates that they had a relatively abrasive and mostly plant-based diet, with limited consumption of animal protein.

The left parietal lobe of a young or middle-adult male's skull contains an oval depressed lesion sustained from the impact of a small blunt object.

All of the pieces are badly disintegrated and very small; according to archaeologist Anne Brindley, they consist of "crumbs or fragments",[27] and it is not possible to determine how may original objects they come from.

[28] Although few of the remnants have distinguishing characteristics, some of the pottery fragments have been identified as within the early Western Neolithic tradition (c. 3750–3600 BC), largely based on the type of paste, and a few pieces with partially intact rims or decorations.

[29] In 2007, tension arose when Lynch requested that visitor facilities should be reduced to preserve "the spiritual quality of the landscape surrounding the tomb.