Barrow (Ditch barrow), Lissobihane, Co. Tipperary

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Barrows

Barrow (Ditch barrow), Lissobihane, Co. Tipperary

At Lissobihane in County Tipperary, a circle barely five metres across sits in rough pasture above a poorly drained hollow.

It would be easy to walk past without registering it at all. The feature is a ditch barrow, a type of prehistoric funerary or ritual monument defined not by an earthen mound rising above the ground, but by a shallow surrounding fosse, the term for the encircling ditch that marks the boundary of the enclosed space. Here, that fosse is only twelve centimetres deep and two metres wide, a gentle interruption in the soil rather than anything dramatic. The interior tilts slightly downward to the south-east, following the natural slope of the land, and sits about twelve centimetres below the level of the ground outside it.

The monument was identified during a field survey carried out on 9 December 2008 by Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly. One of its more interesting characteristics is that it does not stand alone. It is conjoined to a second ditch barrow immediately to the south-west, the two forming a paired arrangement in the landscape. Such groupings are known from other parts of Ireland and suggest that these were not purely solitary acts of commemoration but could involve related burials or successive phases of use. The setting, rough grazing ground overlooking a wet, low-lying area, is fairly typical for this class of monument, which tends to occupy marginal rather than prime agricultural land.

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Pete F
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