Barrow - ditch barrow

The National Monuments Service's description

Ditch-barrow in area 4A was excavated in 2020 under licence 17E0292 by Muireann Ní Cheallacháin for IAC Archaeology during construction phase of residential development by Cairn Homes PLC.
Monument was described as following; 'Ring-ditch was annular in plan with a 3.5m internal diameter and a depth of only 0.2m. The shallow nature of the ring ditch is possibly indicative of modern truncation though ploughing. C3 contained a main silty sand fill (C4) present throughout
the length of the feature along with four primary charcoal deposits recorded along the base
(C25, C37, C41 & C43). These primary deposits did not appear to contain any burnt bone inclusions. Two middle charcoal deposits (C6 & C21) did not appear to contain burnt bone either. Three definite discrete cremation deposits (C5, C10 and C42) containing frequent charcoal and moderate burnt bone inclusions were recorded directly above the main fill (C4). A possible heat affected flint chunk was retrieved from cremation deposit C42. The cremation deposits were all shallow in nature which suggests they were deposited on the backfilled barrow ditch and were not contained in individual cremation pits. A small shallow circular pit (C30) was recorded less than 1m to the east of the ring barrow and it contained a single silty sand fill with moderate charcoal inclusions. The function of pit C30 may be associated in some form with the ring barrow (C3), however no other features were recorded in the periphery of the ring barrow' (Ní Cheallacháin and Spencer 2020, 36-7).

Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien

Date of upload: 10 November 2020