Cist, Gortlecka, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Burial Sites
In the townland of Gortlecka, in County Clare, there lies a cist, one of the most quietly remarkable kinds of prehistoric burial known in Ireland.
A cist is essentially a small stone-lined grave, typically constructed from flat slabs arranged to form a box-like chamber, sometimes covered with a capstone, and usually containing the remains of a single individual along with whatever objects were placed alongside them in death. They date broadly to the Bronze Age, though examples span a considerable range of prehistoric periods, and they tend to turn up in agricultural land, occasionally discovered by chance during ploughing or construction work rather than through deliberate excavation.
Beyond its classification and location, the particulars of this site, its dimensions, its condition, the circumstances of its discovery, and whether any finds were recovered, remain for the moment unrecorded in publicly available sources. That absence is itself a kind of small historical fact. Many such monuments across Ireland exist in this state, known to the record but not yet fully described within it, their stories waiting to be pieced together from older field notes, local accounts, or future survey work.