Directional axis of Wedge Tombs in the Lower Shannon area

 

The convention is that the opening of wedge-tombs are to the west. However is this always the case? 

I came across this interesting quote in a report on Garranbane wedge tomb in Co. Limerick by Elizabeth Shee Twohig in the North Munster Antiquarian Journal 1988.

"It is not clear which end of the gallery was the entrance way. Most wedge-tombs seem to have been open to the west but here the stone closing the western end of the gallery is one of the highest and most substantial stones in the tomb (1.10 m, high, 0.40 m thick). The eastern end-stone is lower and only 0.17 m. thick and could more easily have been used to allow access to the tomb. Several other wedge-tombs in this area of the lower Shannon estuary (in east Limerick, east Clare and west Tipperary) have a similar arrangement, often with the eastern end open, the best known examples being at Baurnadomeeney, Co. Tipperary and Lough Gur, Co. Limerick".

http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/BooksJournals/NorthMunsterAntiquarianJournal/

There is also some evidence of a notch being constructed in wedge tombs to allow access to remains (I need to pull up some more info to back this up).