Linear earthwork

The National Monuments Service's description

Towards the bottom of a gentle SW-facing slope. The name is derived from a local tradition that the linear features were made by a racing wild pig digging its tusks into the ground. The Northern Mucklaghs are two parallel grass-covered earthen banks aligned ENE-WSW and curving slightly to the N at either end (L c. 150m). The N bank (Wth of base 11.2m; H 1.8m at S; H 2.8m at N) is flat-topped (Wth 2m) and separated by a berm (Wth 3.6m) in which a drain has been dug from the S bank (Wth of base 11.2m; H 2.2m at N; H 3.2m at S). The Southern Mucklaghs (RO021-042016-) are c. 70m to the S, and barrow (RO022-057027-) is c. 120m to the NE. Rather than being linear earthworks extending over the landscape as boundaries, the two Mucklaghs may have been an attempt to create large ceremonial enclosures, one within the other. These would have been the largest ever created (int. diam. c. 500m; ext. diam. c. 1km) if they had been completed. (Knox 1914, 27-8; Herity 1983, 131; 1984, 138; Waddell 1983, 33; 1988,15; Waddell et al. 2009, 89-90)

This is a National Monument in state ownership: No. 473

See the attached view (002) looking along the earthworks to the WSW and the distant view from the SW (003) with the northern Mucklaghs on the left.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Waddell, J. 1983 Rathcroghan - a royal site in Connaught. Journal of Irish Archaeology 1, 21-46.

Waddell, J. 1988 Rathcroghan in Connacht. Emania 5, 5-18.

Waddell, J., Fenwick, J. and Barton, K. 2009 Rathcroghan: archaeological and geophysical survey in a ritual landscape. Dublin. Wordwell.

Herity, M. 1983 A survey of the royal site of Cruachain in Connacht, 1. Introduction, the monuments and topography. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 113, 121-42.

Herity, M. 1984 A survey of the royal site of Cruachain in Connacht, 2. Prehistoric monuments. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 114, 125-35.

Knox, H.T. 1914 Ruins of Cruachain Ai. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 44, 1-50.