Burnt mound

The National Monuments Service's description

In poorly drained and rough boggy pasture, 145m to SE of a townland boundary with Dollas Lower. Not depicted on OSi historic mapping. Identified as a feature during topsoil-stripping on the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West (Grogan et. al. 2007, 276). Excavated by Brian Halpin under Licence No. 02E0476 and described as a shallow burnt mound (11.5m E-W; 8m N-S) which was initially covered by peat and similar peaty deposits were encountered below the mound during excavation. The mound material consisted of a large spread of burnt and fire-cracked angular-shaped stones with large quantities of charcoal. Numerous boulders were encountered across the site and were naturally embedded in a very compact, yellow-orange subsoil. An area of stones was identified to S of the feature. These may have been purposely placed and appear to have been intended as a rough platform surface built upon a small, natural, limestone outcrop. No trough or structures were noted, although a number of shallow pit-like features were present. These features were probably natural undulations filled in with contemporaneous burnt material. Some disarticulated animal bone and teeth were the only finds recorded (Halpin 2004, 318). Monument has been fully excavated and is not visible on OSi aerial orthoimage taken 2005-2012, on Digital Globe orthophoto taken 2011-2013 or on Google Earth orthoimage taken 28/06/2018.

See attached Google Earth orthoimage

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Date of upload: 24 October 2020

References

Grogan, E., O'Donnell, L. and Johnston, P. 2007 The Bronze Age landscapes of the pipeline to the West. Bray. Wordwell.

Halpin, B. 2004 Dollas Upper; Burnt spread. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 318, No. 1163. Bray. Wordwell.