Barrow - mound barrow

The National Monuments Service's description

Surveyed in 2013 and described by McGuinness (2014, 35-7) as following: 'This is the well-known Early-Middle Bronze Age cemetery cairn on summit of Knockast, excavated by Hencken and Movius over three weeks in 1932 as part of the archaeological section of the anthropological survey of Ireland conducted by Harvard University. During excavation the ‘entire mound’ was removed, although the last three days were ‘devoted to restoring it as nearly as possible to its original appearance’; the reconstructed mound survives and according to a 1982 ASI account measures about 14m (N-S) x 15m (E-W), is 1.5-2m high, and slopes appreciably from SE to NW. Before excavation the cairn appeared as ‘a low, flat, grassy mound with a slight depression in the middle, [which] measured 60 feet [18.3m] in diameter and no more than 4 feet [1.2m] high at its highest point. In general, however, it was not much over 3 feet [0.91m] high’. Excavation showed the cairn to be composed of a core of stones ‘merely thrown together with no attempt at walling or any other arrangement’, and with dark soil between them and covering them, ‘so that only a few stones were visible on the surface’; a large limestone boulder on the natural ground was incorporated in W half of monument (Hencken and Movius 1932-4, 233-4). The excavation uncovered a very large group of burials reflecting a broad variety of burial customs, including four inhumations in cists or unprotected, and thirty-nine cremations ‘in cists, in pots, in mere spaces between the stones, upon the earth at the base of the cairn, or in holes made in the original ground level below it’ (ibid., 248). Charcoal mixed with the cremations indicated that the funeral pyres were uniformly of oak. There was no evidence of a central, primary burial, most of the burials being located in the SE part of the cairn, ‘and indeed one small area in this vicinity, 17½ feet long by 4 feet wide, and running north and south, contained all the objects other than the pots that were found with burials’ (ibid., 249). These objects comprised three bronze shaving-razors, scraps of bronze, bone cylinders, a plano-convex flint knife and a rock crystal; much later in date, but found isolated deep within in the cairn, was an early medieval penannular brooch, possibly associated with one of the skeletons ‘which must be a later intrusion in the cairn’ (ibid., 252-3). The pottery, though not so tightly distributed as the other grave goods, was again confined to the S and E quadrants, and amounted to ten pots, among which a Bowl Food Vessel, a Vase Food Vessel, an Encrusted Urn, a Vase Urn and a Cordoned Urn were identified. Also found were three pits dug in the original ground surface, containing ox, horse and sheep or goat bones, which, along with signs of intense conflagrations beneath the cairn, were interpreted as ‘probably traces of some ceremonial that took place before the cairn was erected’ (ibid., 247).
Cairn is on summit of very prominent limestone hill known as Knockast or Knockastia. The 1982 ASI account of the site gives a sense of the dramatic location of this monument: Situated on prominent knoll at NW end of ridge running approx NW-SE. Rock outcrop in the form of a crag bounds the spur on which site is situated from S to W. Ground falls away sharply on all other sides from ESE-E-NE-N-NW. [SMR file] In the 1930s the name of this hill was pronounced ‘Knock Costha’ or ‘Connacostha’ and it appears to be the Cnoc in Coscair referred to in the medieval text Bruiden Da Chocae, in which ‘Eochain Bece, having gone away out of a battle described, fell on Cnoc Ni Coscair after weariness of conflict, so that there are many graves on it and it is called Beces Hill’ (Shaw 1921, 142-3; Hogan 1910, 275; Hencken and Movius 1932-4, 2).
On SW slopes of Knockast about 400m to W, the ASI documents a church and well (WM031-014----) — this is Toberavill holy well, at which John O’Donovan caught the tail end of a pilgrimage tradition in 1837: 'From the S:W: side of the conspicuous Hill of Cnoc Aiste in this Parish, springs a holy well called Tobar Amhaill [supposed to mean St. Avell’s Well] at which stations are performed on Fridays, but especially on Good Fridays. Is there any Saint of this name in the Calendar or in Colgan?' (Herity 2011, 76). The church is marked Ancient Chapel (in Ruins) on OS 6” map (Hencken and Movius 1932-4; Kavanagh 1973, 566; 1976, 376-7; 1991, 98-100; Waddell 1990, 149-50; Ó Ríordáin and Waddell 1993, 141 )'.

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

Date of upload: 23 February 2015

References

Kavanagh, R.M. 1973 The Encrusted Urn in Ireland. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 73C, 507-617.

Ó Ríordáin, B. and Waddell, J. 1993 The funerary bowls and vases of the Irish Bronze Age. Galway University Press.

Waddell, J. 1990 The Bronze Age burials of Ireland. Galway University Press.

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.

Herity, M. (ed.) 2011 Ordnance Survey Letters Longford and Westmeath. Dublin. Four Masters Press.

Hogan, E. 1910 Onomasticon Goedelicum. Dublin.

Hencken, H. O'Neill and Movius, H. L. 1932-4 The cemetery cairn of Knockast. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 41C, 232-84.

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.