Barrow - ring-barrow

The National Monuments Service's description

Timoney (1984, 323, no. 12) describes this as follows: ‘The total diameter of this ring-barrow, sited on low ground, is 16.30 m. It consists of a circular mound, 5.50m in diameter and 40cm high, surrounded by a "U"-bottomed fosse, 1.50m wide and 30cm deep, and by a bank, 2m wide and 60cm high. Petrie (1837; Stokes 1868, 245) in dealing with the megalithic remains at Carrowmore refers to this as follows: "This circle which is situated near the road, and eastnortheast of no. 9, is composed of small stones mixed with earth and is forty feet in diameter. There is a stone sepulchre in the center but no cromlcach". Since then it has consistently been classified as a megalithic tomb. Wood-Martin (1888, p. 15, fig. 1) marked this monument on his map as no. 12 and restated Petrie's description of it. Following them Borlase (1897, 151), who completely misinterprets Wood-Martin's plan of the monument, Herity (1974. 266) and Kitchen (1983, 161) all have sought to explain this monument as the remains of a megalithic tomb. If Pertie's no. 12 be equatable with the monument described above, and there seems to be no cartographic or literary reason to do otherwise, then the interpretation of this monument as being the remains of a megalithic tomb are unwarranted. Burenhult (1980:1, 93) lists this not as a megalith, but as Structure 3, Carrowmore.’ (Bergh 1995, 186, Carrowmore 12)

This is a National Monument in State care (No. 153).

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 12 February 2014