Barrow - ring-barrow

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on WSW face of high natural ridge running NE-SW with excellent views in all directions. Well preserved ring-barrow (overall diam. 19.5m x 18.6m) consisting of a small slightly elongated shaped earthen mound (7m NE-SW; 5.7m NW-SE; H 1.1m) enclosed by a wide shallow fosse and a substantial earthen bank with sharp profile. There are some slight disturbance gaps in the bank which appear to be livestock gaps. A modern field bank of earth and stone running NW-SE is located 3m E of external bank. There are three large orthostats of megalithic proportions incorporated into the W face of this field bank which may have been the remains of some type of megalithic structure (WM018-090001-) which has been partially levelled. Two of these stones are set longitudinally in a line as if to form the side wall of a chamber with the third stone at NW end running perpendicular as if to form a jamb stone of the chamber (SMR File 27/04/1970).

Surveyed in 2013 and described by McGuinness (2014, 33-4) as following: 'The survey-team was unable to gain access to this site this season, but it was well described in the 1970s by ASI fieldworkers, who identified it as a saucer-barrow (a British term synonymous with ring-barrow) and noted the occurrence of a megalithic structure which is clearly related to the barrow. The 1970 account is given here: A small oval mound surrounded by a substantial earthen bank with a very wide shallow fosse between them. The bank is denuded almost to the bottom of the fosse on the WNW. It has a slight modern gap on the ESE. The bank supports some furze. No formal entrance way. Situated on the WSW side of the top of a prominent NE-SW ridge on gently undulating and hilly ground of good pasture. A modern NW-SE fence of earth and stone extends outside the bank on the NE. In this, to NE of the barrow are three stone of megalithic proportions, two set longitudinally in a line as if forming the side of a chamber grave and the standing upright at the NW end as if a jamb. L of barrow NE-SW = 7m (overall); B of barrow NW-SE = 5.70m (overall); Height of barrow = c. 1.10m [SMR file] There is an unpublished plan and profile in the SMR file, showing the three close-set orthostats in fence to NE of barrow, which appears also to slope down from NE-SW. In 1921, when Shaw saw them, they were collectively known as the ‘leegaun’, although he mistakenly placed them ‘on the west, facing the barrow’. Monument is marked as a roughly circular mound on OS 6” map (Shaw 1921, 137).

See attached plan of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI

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

Date of revised upload: 20 July 2015

References

McGuinness, D. 2014 The prehistoric burial mounds and related monuments of County Westmeath. Part II - Monuments in central Westmeath (Barony of Rathconrath and parts of baronies of Moygoish, Moycashel, and Moyashel & Magheradernon). Unpublished survey funded by Westmeath County Council in association with Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society.

Shaw, T.J. 1921 Some notes regarding Slemain Midhe, the probable site of the battlefield of Gairech and Ilgairech, and other places in Westmeath referred to in the Táin Bo Cúailgne. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 51, 133-46.