Cairn - burial cairn

The National Monuments Service's description

On a broad col with higher ground to the NW and SE, and lower ground to the NE and SW. Overlaid by the cemetery mound (RO028-204001-), the whole monument was excavated and reconstructed in 1966-7 (Ó Ríordáin 1997). The cairn (diam. 13m N-S; 14m E-W; H 1.5m) was defined by a drystone facing (H up to 0.5m) with a line of kerbstones E-SE where cremated bone was recovered. Eight cist burials were recovered under the cairn, within it, and outside it, containing a total of eight Bowl Food Vessels, a fragment of a bowl, the cremated remains of fourteen individuals, and three inhumations. Graves 1, 3, and 13 were in the old ground surface or the subsoil and probably pre-date the building of the cairn. Grave 2 was within the cairn close to its centre and is probably contemporary with the building of the cairn.
Grave 1 is a cist (RO028-204003-) (int. dims 0.56m E-W; 0.5m N-S; H 0.3m) with a capstone (dims c. 1.45m x c. 0.8m) which contained a bowl food vessel and scattered cremation set into the old ground surface c. 2m inside the perimeter of the cairn. Grave 2 is a cist (RO028-204004-) (int. dims 0.85m E-W; 0.6m N-S; H 0.45) with a large capstone (dims c. 1.75m x c. 1.45m) which contained two bowl food vessels and the inhumed remains of two individuals. It was close to the centre within the cairn. Grave 3 is a cist (RO028-204005-) (int. dims 0.38m E-W; 0.35m N-S; H 0.35m) with a double capstone (dims c. 0.87m x c. 0.8m; T 0.35m) which contained a bowl food vessel and an inhumed child. It was set in the subsoil c. 1.2m outside the kerb at N. Grave 13 is a cist (RO028-204010-) (int. dims 0.84 N-S; 0.57m E-W; H 0.52m) with a capstone (dims c. 1.5m x 1.15m) which contained two bowl food vessels and a large deposit of cremated bone. It was set in the subsoil just NW of the centre of the cairn.
Four other cists appear to be inserted and belong to the cemetery mound phase (RO028-204001-) when the cairn was covered in a clay mound and six secondary pits, largely in the mound, contained the cremated remains of ten individuals and fragments of two Vase Urns, an almost complete Vase Urn, a bowl, fragment of a bowl, a bone disc and a bronze dagger. (Kavanagh 1977, 86-7; Waddell 1990, 130; Ó Ríordáin and Waddell 1993 128-9; Ó Ríordáin 1997)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Waddell, J. 1990 The Bronze Age burials of Ireland. Galway University Press.

Ó Ríordáin, B. and Waddell, J. 1993 The funerary bowls and vases of the Irish Bronze Age. Galway University Press.

Ó Ríordáin, A.B. 1997 A Bronze Age cemetery mound at Grange, Co. Roscommon. Journal of Irish Archaeology 8, 43-72.

Kavanagh, R.M. 1977 Pygmy cups in Ireland. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 107, 61-95.