Barrow, Pollacorragune, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Barrows

Barrow, Pollacorragune, Co. Galway

On a south-west-facing slope in the pastureland of Pollacorragune, there is a prehistoric burial mound that time has treated poorly.

A barrow is essentially a raised earthen mound constructed over a burial, and this one is subcircular in plan, measuring roughly 17.8 metres across its widest axis. What remains is a flat central area of about 10.3 metres in diameter, surrounded by the remnants of an earthen bank or scarp. The whole thing has been considerably disturbed over the centuries, and only the eastern side and the arc running from south to west retain anything close to their original form.

The interior once held a cist burial grave, a type of prehistoric interment in which the body or cremated remains were placed within a small stone-lined box set into the ground. Such burials are typical of the Bronze Age in Ireland, and their presence beneath or within barrows is well documented across the country. The association here between the mound and the grave points to a funerary landscape that has largely vanished into the surrounding farmland, leaving only this heavily eroded outline to suggest what once stood. Without excavation, the precise date and details of whoever was interred here remain unknown.

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Pete F
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