Barrow (Ring Barrow), Tullymore (Ballyshannon Ed), Co. Donegal

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Barrows

Barrow (Ring Barrow), Tullymore (Ballyshannon Ed), Co. Donegal

In the townland of Tullymore near Ballyshannon, County Donegal, lies a modest yet intriguing archaeological feature known as a ring-barrow.

This circular earthwork, measuring 8.3 metres in internal diameter, consists of a slightly raised central area surrounded by a defensive ditch, or fosse, with an outer earthen bank encircling the entire structure. A single causeway provides access from the southeast, creating a deliberate entrance point into what was once a significant ritual or burial space.

Ring-barrows like this one date primarily to the Bronze Age, though some examples continued to be used into the Iron Age. They typically served as burial monuments, with the raised central platform often containing cremated remains or inhumations. The surrounding fosse and bank would have marked this as a sacred space, separating it from the everyday landscape whilst making it visible to the surrounding community. The careful construction, with its defined entrance causeway, suggests this wasn't merely a practical burial site but a place of ceremony and remembrance.

Located west of another archaeological site in the area, this ring-barrow forms part of a broader prehistoric landscape in County Donegal. The monument was documented as part of the comprehensive Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, compiled by Brian Lacey and his team in 1983; a groundbreaking work that catalogued the county's field antiquities from the Mesolithic period through to the 17th century. Though subtle in the modern landscape, features like this ring-barrow offer tangible connections to the Bronze Age communities who once inhabited this corner of Ireland, marking places where they honoured their dead and perhaps gathered for ritual observances.

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