Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Barrow - mound barrow
Cooksborough, County Westmeath, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Cooksborough
- County
- Westmeath
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Outlined
- Coordinates
- 53.54848, -7.23951
- SMR number
- WM020-026----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Monument surveyed in 2015 and described by McGuinness (2015, 47) as following: ‘Roughly circular, elegantly dome-shaped mound (Diam. 12.6m N-S x 12.3m E-W) with flattish summit, reaching a height of 1.9m above ground level at N side; although the ASI account of 11/3/70 claims the site is ‘probably a bowl barrow’ [SMR file], there is no clear evidence for a ditch except for vague and doubtful traces on N side. Mound appears to be very stony under the sod but it is unclear whether it is a cairn or simply made of stony earth. A tree grows on N side of mound and a thorn tree on its S side, and the ASI in 11/3/70 documented a blackthorn hedge at its foot of the mound from S-W, the remnants of a square fence depicted on OS 6” map [SMR file] Barrow is strikingly situated near N edge of flat summit of very prominent glacial hillock which is stepped at its lower levels, with ground dropping down most sharply to E; it overlooks a stream to N. This is one of a group of five barrows spread over three townlands on either side of the stream, including two other mound-barrows (WM020-027----; WM020-028---), now destroyed, which also lay on hillocks across the stream c. 200m to NE, but again overlooking it; and two ring-barrows (WM020-142----, c. 120m to NNE; No. 14, c. 90m to NNW), much closer to the stream in the once-flooded area at the foot of the hillocks; when flooded, the hillock on which the present site is located rose dramatically from the flooded area to N (pers. comm. landowner)’.
Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by David McGuinness.
Date of upload: 8 February 2016
References
McGuinness, D. 2015 The prehistoric burial mounds and related monument of County Westmeath. Part III - Monuments in Northern and Eastern Westmeath (Baronies of Delvin and Fore, and Parts of Baronies of Farbill, Fartullagh, Moygoish, and Moyashel & Magheradernon). Unpublished survey funded by Westmeath County Council in association with Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society.
Nearby in the register
- Barrow - ring-barrowunder 1 mi
- Barrow - ring-barrowunder 1 mi
- Burial moundunder 1 mi
- Burial moundunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.