Cairn - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, on level ground on top of a ridge. A roughly circular cairn (17m N-S; 16m E-W) of moss-covered limestone stones defined by a rocky scarp (ext. H 0.7m) all round apart from a short section at ENE where it is quarried away. The quarrying extends westwards into the interior for 14m to within 3m of the scarp at WSW and its base is on the old ground level beneath the cairn. Spoil from this quarrying has been dumped in a pile in the NW quadrant of the cairn. On the SE side of the quarry trench, near the scarp at E, is the remains of a stone-lined cist (SL033-108001-). Traces of kerbing and a shallow fosse (Wth 2.9m) were noted along SE arc during a previous inspection (pers. comm. M. Keane and J. Farrelly). Described by Wood-Martin (1887-8, 269) as '240 feet [73.15m] in circumference at base, 40 feet [12.19m] on the side, and at top there is a truncated cone about 12 feet [3.62m] in diameter. It is constructed of loose stones, with a covering of soil and grass'. By 1936 it was described as 'thirty feet [9.14m] high and one hundred and twenty feet [36.57m] in circumference' (MacDonagh 1936, 198).
Lewis (1837, vol. 2, 189) mentioned under the parish of Kilmorgan 'several mounds of earth covering stone graves, in which bones and urns containing ashes have been found, whence it is inferred that a battle was anciently fought here' (SL033-211----). It is not known to which site or sites Lewis was referring but this cairn and the bowl-barrow (SL033-104----) also in Doomore townland are both in the parish of Kilmorgan.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).

Date of upload: 18 January 2008