Barrow - bowl-barrow

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, 10m S of road that forms townland boundary with Knocklong East. Annotated ‘Clogherbeg Moat’ on the 1840 ed. of the OSi 6-inch map, on which it is depicted as a small raised circular raised area intersected at W by a post-1700 field boundary running N-S. Shown on the 1897 ed OSi 25-inch as a small circular-shaped flat-topped mound (diam. c. 6m) standing in the centre of a narrow small field. Earthwork described by Westropp (1919, 10-11) as 'a little green tumulus, called Clogherbeg Mote'. The burial mound was described by Westropp (1916-19, 172) as ‘a perfect little green tumulus in parts 11 ft. [3.3m] high; the base about 100ft. [30m] across, quite featureless; the ground falls abruptly to a T-shaped valley, where two streamlets meet’.
An emergency excavation (Licence No. 96E0032) carried out in 1996 by Victor Buckley, recorded ‘that the site had been a large barrow, approx. 18m in diameter and 5m high. It had been levelled to the surrounding ground level. A large, 1.5m-square igneous erratic was still in place in the centre of where the mound had stood, suggesting that this stone may have had some ritual significance. No trace of an enclosing fosse was noted, but an area (3m sq.) of pyre debris, 0.2m deep, on the old ground surface was excavated. Some human remains, both cremated and uncremated, were retrieved. Analysis by Laureen Buckley revealed that the uncremated remains consisted of two adults, sex indeterminate; one adult and one juvenile were identified from the cremated remains. Several fragments of prehistoric pottery were also recovered.’ No surface remains visible of levelled barrow on Digital Globe orthoimage taken between 2011-13 or on Google Earth orthoimages.

See attached Google Earth orthoimages

Compiled by: Fiona Rooney

Date of upload: 13 July 2021

References

Buckley, V.M. 1997 Raheenamadra; Barrow. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1996: summary accounts of excavations in Ireland, No. 253, 72. Bray. Wordwell.

Westropp, T.J. 1916-19 The Later Pagan Sanctuaries of Co. Limerick. Journal of the North Munster Antiquarian Society 4, 2, 122-48, 157-83.

Westropp, T.J. 1919 The ancient places of assembly in the counties Limerick and Clare. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 49, 1-24.