Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Cairn - burial cairn
Letterkeen, County Mayo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Letterkeen
- County
- Mayo
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 54.00730, -9.55390
- SMR number
- MA046-004001-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Located on a rise in the middle of a plateau bounded by the Goulaun River on one side and by the steep slope of Letterkeen Hill on the other, in an area of mountainous and boggy terrain.
This burial cairn was excavated (E000015) in 1950 by Ó 'Ríordáin and Mac Dermott (1950-51). The excavators interpreted a stony rise or mound, which appeared to be partly natural and partly artificial, as a possible Bronze Age burial mound or cairn (ibid, 91). Three cists (MA046-004002-; MA046-004003-; MA046-004004-) and two pit burial (MA046-004005-; MA046-004006-) were found, and the stony material of the possible cairn directly overlay one (MA046-004003-) of them. At a later period, a rath (MA046-004007-) was built on this location.
Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy
Date of upload: 9 April 2019
References
Ó Ríordáin, S.P. and Mac Dermott, M. 1950-1 The excavation of a ringfort at Letterkeen, Co. Mayo. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 54, 89-119
Nearby in the register
- Cistunder 1 mi
- Pit-burialunder 1 mi
- House - early medievalunder 1 mi
- Cistunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.