Barrow - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007

Situated on a level plain, immediately S of the old course of the River Fane. Originally a rougly circular, earthen, flat-topped mound (diam. 12.5m N-S, 8.8m E-W on top; overall dims. 20m N-S, 17.5m E-W; H 1.8m) enclosed by three fosses and three banks from E-S-W. Innermost fosse Wth 3.7m, D 0.3m; first intervening bank Wth 7m, H 0.3m; middle fosse Wth 5m, D 1m. The second intervening bank (Wth 6.5m, H 0.5m) is enclosed by a shallow outer fosse (Wth 3m, D 0.3m) and a large but degraded outer bank (Wth 8m, H 0.2m).

The outer bank may have been added to by alluvial deposits in the course of flooding, and Wright (1758, pl. 5) shows the ditches as flooded. The central mound has been affected by erosion, particularly on the N side, and though Wright records that part of the mound was cut away in deepening the river it is clear that the earthworks did not extend to the N of the river.

The site is variously referred to as 'Cnoc-an-innse' (CLAJ 1925, 46) or'Dundugan'. Owing to its location and nature it has been variously described as a ringfort or a motte. The site may be a hybrid form of large ring-barrow and bell-barrow, which at a later stage was reused as a motte.