Barrow - ditch barrow

The National Monuments Service's description

In reclaimed pasture, 135m N of the Morningstar River that marks the townland boundary with Glenlary. Barrow (LI049-231----) lies 40m to NW and barrow (LI049-230----) 75m to NW. Not depicted on historic OSi maps. Possible barrow listed as ‘Mitchelstowndown West 56’ by Grogan (1989, 241). Recorded as Site No. 61 when excavated by Aoife Daly and Eoin Grogan of Discovery Programme in 1992 the results of which were summarised as follows; ‘The cemetery of Mitchelstowndown West near Knocklong contains 53 small barrows. Excavation of 4 of these [LI049-230/233----] took place over an 8-week period in July and August, 1992. The ditch is U-shaped in profile having straight vertical sides and a flat base. After a period of silt accumulation, material had collapsed into the ditch sealing a layer of grassy fibres as in the ditch of Barrow 55 [LI049-231----]. The ditch was subsequently re-cut to a narrow V-shaped trench on the eastern side. At the southern side of the barrow, which lacked evidence for re-cutting, the interior edge had uneven tool-marks similar to those on Barrow 54 [LI049-230----]. There was no surviving mound. The ditch contained a retouched flint flake. This site was probably flattened at the same time as Barrows 54 and 55.
Discussion
The Mitchelstowndown West sites form a clear element of the barrow complex and the associated funerary tradition in the Morningstar Valley and probably date to the Middle to Late Bronze Age. Because there is no conclusive evidence that the barrows had a funerary function it is postulated that burial deposits had become so token that the barrows’ function had become a symbolic monument associated with burial rituals and perhaps with remembrance of the dead’ (Daly and Grogan 1993, 44). Faint trace of circular cropmark visible on Google Earth orthoimages.

See attached Google Earth orthoimages.

Compiled by: Martin Fitzpatrick

Date of upload: 11 October 2021

References

Grogan, E. 1989 The Early Prehistory of the Lough Gur Region: Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement patterns in North Munster, south of the River Shannon, 3 Vols. Doctoral PhD Thesis submitted to the Dept. of Archaeology, University College Dublin.

Daly, A. and Grogan, G. 1993 Mitchelstowndown West: Ring-ditches/ring-barrows. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 1992: Summary Accounts of Archaeological Excavations in Ireland, No. 131, 43-4. Wordwell, Dublin.