Barrow - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on top of a knoll in low lying pasture, near the N shore of Lough Ennell. A possible barrow described as a ring-work in 1976 was depicted as a circular-shaped earthwork on Larkin's 1808 map of Co. Westmeath. Shown as a circular-shaped earthwork on Lyons Estate Map of 1823 (NLI MS 2753). In 1976 a cist burial (WM025-076002-) was exposed when backfilling a small disused gravel pit at the base of a glacial hillock. The cist was situated just below the break of the hillock on SE facing slope. Eamonn Kelly of the National Museum of Ireland carried out an investigation of the site and recorded the following details; 'The capstone (dims. 0.91m x 0.76m x 0.08m) was fully removed and the cist was seen to contain a small pottery vessel and a pile of cremated bones. Excavation relocated the grave (max. L 0.47m x Max. L 0.41m x D 0.5m) which had not been further damaged in the back-filling operation. It was trapezoidal in shape and was made up of 4 slabs set into a sub-rectangular pit (dims. 0.95m x 0.8m x D 0.5m). Mr Maguire informed me that a ring-work consisting of an earthen bank approximately 50cm high and 8m in diameter once crowned the knoll. A large tree known locally as 'The Hangman's Tree' grew in the centre of it. The cist being reported on was situated outside this earthwork' (Kelly 1982-3, 87-8).

Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien.

Date of upload: 11 September 2019

References

Kelly, E.P. 1982-3 A cist burial at Keoltown. Co. Westmeath. Ríocht na Mídhe VII, 2, 86-89.