Barrow - bowl-barrow

The National Monuments Service's description

National Monument No. 606. Described in 1979 as following: ‘The low earth and stone mound is of circular plan with a slightly conical point. Its sides have been gravelled and disturbed showing its stoney core. On the E and NE there are very slight traces of a shallow fosse with even fainter indications of a bank outside. This ‘bank’ is not present in the S and W where however there are very clear traces of old cultivation ridges. An old earth and stone field bank separates this side on the W from Site 5 (WM011-130---)’ (SMR File 18/04/1979). A seonc field report from the same year describes the monument as ‘a small low bowl barrow, now quite denuded by cattle. There is a very shallow fosse at the foot of the barrow on west, north and east with a very low outer bank of earth on northeast & west. A field fence runs close to the perimeter of the barrow on the north & NNE sides. The barrow is on top of a rise on the NW shoulder of the hill’ (SMR File 02/05/1979).
Monument surveyed in 2012 and described by McGuinness (2012, 34) as following: ‘Roughly circular mound (diam. 9m N-S x 9.4m E-W) with shapely rounded profile, surrounded by shallow ditch, situated on flattish, gently N-sloping summit of spur of Frewin Hill. Where best preserved in NE quadrant, ditch is up to 3.2m in width with a depth of 0.1m below external ground level; mound rises up to 1.34m above ditch on this side. If ditch were well-preserved all round, overall diameter of monument would be somewhere in the vicinity of 15m. Ring-barrow (WM011-130----) lies on sloping ground 27m to WSW, on opposite side of a recently constructed double-fence, over 4m in width, with trees planted in the middle. Running approximately in a semicircle from NE side of ring-barrow around the present monument is an earthwork comprising a scarp, ditch and outer bank. Large cairn or tumulus (WM011-133----) on summit of Frewin Hill is prominent to E, and ring-barrows at Balrath (WM011-103----; WM011-104----) would be visible to N but for trees’.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by David McGuinness.

Date of upload: 25 January 2016

References

McGuinness, D. 2012 The prehistoric burial mounds and related monument of County Westmeath. Part I - Preliminary account of the monuments in the Lough Owel Area (Barony of Corkaree and part of Barony of Moyashel & Magheradernon). Unpublished survey funded by Westmeath County Council in association with Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society.