Cairn - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Macalister and O'Connell each record the former existence of a burial cairn at this location (1939b, 23; 1939a, 44). It was partially dismantled around 1870, according to their local informants, and was composed of small boulders. It was thirty-three feet (10.05m) in diameter (Macalister, ibid.). O'Connell was informed of a 'chamber' beneath a large flag stone, the removal of which from the lower levels of the cairn revealed a human skeleton underneath. Buried in the body of the monument was a decorated stone, which was subsequently used in the construction of a nearby building where it remained until recently. At present it lies on the ground beside the remains of this building, now used as a shed. The precise location of the cairn was not identified.
The decorated stone (KE070-072001-) is an approximately rectangular-sectioned block of green sandstone measuring .68m x .28m x .24m. It is decorated on all four faces. A portion of one face has been broken off, but on the remaining portion is an incomplete cup-and-circle and radial line. Macalister's illustration of the stone indicates that there was a similar motif towards its broader end. The obverse face features a ring and radial groove, as well as a conjoined arrangement of five subcircular and two incomplete rings, one of which features a central cupmark. Three grooves run from this arrangement to the edges of the stone. The sides of the stone each feature a sub-circular pocked area with a radial line and a plain cupmark. The absence of decoration on either end of the stone supports the suggestion that it may have originally functioned as a pillar stone (Connolly 1991, 34-41).

The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 396. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 28 July 2013