Cairn - ring-cairn

The National Monuments Service's description

National monument No. 247. Ring-cairn situated on top of 'Knockmore' (Carraig Mór) with commanding views of the surrounding countryside. Site of Dun Gair depicted on current ed. OS 6-inch map 35m to SSE of ring-cairn. It has been suggested by O'Kelly that the ring-cairn and Dun Gair are one of the same site but this is uncertain. It is more likely that the monument known as Dun Gair would have been a ringfort or cashel type monument rather than that a small ring-cairn. In the Book of Rights, the fortress Dun Gair is listed as one of the seats of the King of Cashel and this reference may be a to large enclosure or cashel that was location on this hill but which has since been levelled as suggested on 6-inch map (Lynch 1895, 246). On the 1840 ed. OS 6-inch map a spot height of 446 ft. [136m] OD is depicted at the location of the ring-cairn.
The ring-cairn overlooks Bourchiers Castle (LI032-022034-) 225m to N, a small lake now drained containing two crannóga (LI032-039001/002-) annotated as 'Balie Islands' 130m to E, prehistoric enclosure (LI032-022030-) 85m to S. Similar in size and morphology to a ring-cairn (LI032-014009-) standing on the summit of Knockfennell which is visible 780m to NNW.
The ring-cairn is the monument Windle (1912) marked as 'Stone Circle M' in 1912. It consists of a circular area (approx. diam. 15m) defined by a scatter of low stones and a partially preserved low earth and stone bank (H 0.3m; Wth 0.6m) which appears to represent the remains of a small ring-cairn or robbed out burial cairn.
In 1944 O'Kelly recorded the following about this monument which he speculated was; 'a doubtful site. On the ground it appears as a roughly circular complex of moss-grown stones with a diameter of 49' [15m]. It may be a circle or the remains of a small cairn, or just a fortuitous arrangement of out cropping boulders. In mapping the site the Ordnance Surveyor mistakenly located it a short distance to the SW of its true position. He then marked the true position with a cross (the symbol for the site of a vanished monument) and entered on the map beside it the words Dun Gair (site of), thus showing two sites when in fact, there should be only one. This has led to considerable confusion as it has ben called a fort by some writers and a stone circle by others. Dun Gair is one of the forts mentioned as having been fortified by Brian Boru' (O'Kelly 1944, 26).
In 1912 Windle described the ring-cairn as following; 'On the extreme slope of the hill and not far from the place marked as the 'Site of Dun Gair' on the Ordnance map are the remains of a small circle unmarked by the Ordnance Survey. Almost all the stones are covered by grass, and of the few which appear none is higher than 1 foot [0.3m]. This also was a double circle 49 feet [15m] in outside diameter and with a 2 foot [0.6m] clearance to the pathway' (Windle 1912, 302).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 23 May 2018

References

Windle, B. 1912 Megalithic remains surrounding
Lough Gur, Co. Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal
Irish Academy 30C, 283–306.

Lynch, J. F. 1895 Lough Gur. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 1, 241-258, 289-302.

O'Kelly, M.J. 1944 A survey of the antiquities in the barony of Small County, Co. Limerick. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 4, 16-53.

Harbison, P. 1970 (Reprint 1992) Guide to the national monuments in the Republic of Ireland. Dublin. Gill and Macmillan.