Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Cairn - unclassified
Poulacarran, County Clare, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Poulacarran
- County
- Clare
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 53.02149, -9.13363
- SMR number
- CL009-075017-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
In level, rough grazing to the SSE of Carran Church (CL009-075001-) and Graveyard (CL009-075002-) overlooking the Poulacarran Valley to the E, and also associated with a Settlement Cluster (CL009-075005-) concentrated just NW of the Carran Church.
One of five small cairns visible to the SSE (CL009-075003- and CL009-075015-), SW (CL009-075016- and CL009-075017-) and at W (CL009-075018-) of Carran Graveyard. While they may be the result of – or may have been augmented by - field clearance, it’s possible that some, at least, (in particular CL009-075003- and CL009-075018-) may have functioned as penitential stations associated with Carran Church?
Westropp (1900-1902, 134) recorded, ‘South of the church (CL009-075001-) is a small cairn, round which coffins are carried …’ This is likely to be the ‘Carn’ recorded on the OS 6-inch maps (CL009-075003-) The practice was not recorded by the time of Swinfen's writing (1992, 9). Westropp (1906-1907, 460) further reported that a cist was covered by a cairn in Carran townland (see also Westropp 1898, 362), however, no cist is visible in any of these five cairns.
CL009-075017- was recorded by Dowd, Crumlish and O’Gorman (2007, 33: Cairn A) as a slightly oblong cairn (max. diam. 5.7m E-W; H 0.3-0.4m) composed of relatively large stones (L 0.3-0.5m) with an upright limestone slab (H0.85m) on the S-edge of the cairn.
See attached CL009-075017-_1: their photo from S, with Carran Church (CL009-075001-) and Graveyard (CL009-075002-) in background
References
Dowd, A. Crumlish B. O’Gorman D. 2007. A landscape survey of Carran Church in the Burren, Co. Clare. Unpublished thesis for the Masters in Landscape Archaeology, NUI Galway.
Swinfen, A. 1992. Forgotten stones. Ancient church sites of the Burren and environs. Dublin. The Lilliput Press.
Westropp, T.J. 1898 Prehistoric remains in the Burren, County Clare (Carran and Kilcorney). The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 8, 352-366.
Westropp, T.J. 1906-1907 The cists, dolmens and pillars of the western half of the county of Clare. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 26, 447-72.
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott
Date of upload: 28 September 2022
Nearby in the register
- Cairn - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
- Graveyardunder 1 mi
- Cairn - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
- Churchunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.