Cairn - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

In low-lying marshy pasture c. 40m S of the Derreen River, within a bend in the river with wet ground to the S, and overlooked by higher ground to the N. The summit offers a commanding view down the river valley to the W and S. Indicated and named ‘Carnaconnaughtagh’ on the 1840 OS 6-inch map while named ‘Carnconnaughtaun’ on the 1916 ed. Described by O’Donovan in 1839 (Comber 1997, 98-9) as ‘measuring one hundred paces in circumference, tapering to the top, and about twenty-five feet in height’. Westropp (1905, 361) estimated its height as ‘12 feet to 14 feet high’.

Commenting on its name O’Donovan (Comber 1997, 98-9) reported that ‘the tradition in the neighbourhood is that a multitude of Connachtmen on one occasion followed a large serpent from their own country to this place, where they succeeded in killing it, and each having carried a stone in his hand in the pursuit, they all threw them into one heap here on the death of their prey, and hence the name’.

O’Donovan (1854, vol. V, 1669-1670) identified the site as the historical Carn Mhic Táil, suggesting that it was ‘probably the place where the Chief of Corcomroe was inaugurated before Burren was separated from Coromroe’. As FitzPatrick has argued (1997, 18), while there are no specific historical references to inauguration at the site, it is mentioned as a meeting and mustering place for battles, which combined with its putative ancestral links to the Corcu Modruad, via its namesake Táil, make a case for its role as an inauguration site. She further suggests that that it may have assumed a role as an inauguration site in the first half of the eighth century following the expulsion of the Corcu Modruad from much of south and east Clare by the Dál gCais, with Carn Mhic Táil assuming a new significance as a landmark and inauguration site on the southern boundary of their reduced kingdom.

A steep-sided circular stone cairn (diam. 24.5m; H 6.6m) with a slightly convex summit (diam. 12m) composed of large angular pieces of limestone rubble. Robbed out at W and S. To E, a low stone revetment (L 8m; H 0.4m) can be seen within the rubble. At N, E, and S low (H 1.5m; T 1m) drystone walls extend c. 13m from the cairn, possibly built from loose collapsed material to serve as animal shelters. Cultivation ridges are clearly visible on ortho photography (MapGenie 2013) in the field surrounding the monument.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Eve Campbell

Date of upload: 28 June 2023

Reference:
FitzPatrick, E. 1997 The historic assembly sites of Tulach Uí Dheadhaidh and Carn Mhic Táil. The Other Clare 21, 17-19.

References

Comber, M. (ed.) 1997 The antiquities of County Clare: John O’Donovan and Eugene Curry: Ordnance Survey Letters 1839. Clasp Press. Ennis.

O'Donovan, J. (ed. and trans.) 1848-51 (Reprint 1998) Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, from the earliest period to the year 1616. 7 vols. With a new introduction by K. Nicholls. Dublin. De Búrca Rare Books.

Westropp, T. J. 1905 Prehistoric remains (Forts and Dolmens) along the borders of Burren, in the county of Clare. Part 1 – The Eastern Border. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 35, 205-29.