Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Pit-burial
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
- 54.00725, -9.55374
- SMR number
- MA046-004006-
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 rise of Letterkeen Hill on the other, in an area of mountainous and boggy terrain.
This pit-burial was excavated (E000015) in 1950 by Ó 'Ríordáin and Mac Dermott (1950-51, 95). It consisted of a pit (0.4m x 0.3m; D 0.15m), roughly rectangular in plan, completely filled with the cremated bones of an adult. An inverted pottery pygmy vessel was found in the upper levels of the bones. The burial was dated to the Bronze Age. A possible burial cairn (MA046-004001-), three other cists (MA046-004002-; MA046-004003-; MA046-004004-) and another pit burial (MA046-004005-), also dated to the Bronze Age, were found in close proximity. At a later period, these features were overlain by a rath (MA046-004007-).
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
- House - early medievalunder 1 mi
- Cistunder 1 mi
- Souterrainunder 1 mi
- Cistunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.