Barrow, Larganboy, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Barrows

Barrow, Larganboy, Co. Mayo

On a small hillock in the townland of Larganboy, a concrete water tank now sits where prehistoric remains may once have stood.

The ground drops away steeply on three sides, giving the spot a natural prominence in the landscape, yet what might have made it significant long before the age of water infrastructure has been largely erased.

The 1838 Ordnance Survey six-inch map recorded a circular embanked enclosure here, roughly fifteen to twenty metres in diameter, the kind of feature consistent with a barrow, a burial mound raised over the remains of the dead. By the time the 1917 edition was drawn, the same feature had reduced to a smaller hachured mark of around ten to fifteen metres, already encircling a trigonometrical point at 455 feet. Between those two surveys and in the years since, the site suffered considerably. The south-west slope of the hillock was quarried away entirely, the disturbed ground was levelled and grassed over, and the summit was graded flat. A concrete water tank was installed at the top, which may sit directly over the original enclosure. Too little survives above ground to confirm the monument's nature with any certainty, though two comparable mound barrows in the same townland lend some weight to the interpretation: one lies roughly 800 metres to the south-east, another about 500 metres to the north-west. A mound barrow is typically a low earthen or stone mound constructed over a burial, often dating to the Bronze Age, and their clustering across a townland is not unusual, reflecting how prehistoric communities used and marked their landscapes over generations. What stands at Larganboy today is, in a sense, a record of accumulating erasure rather than survival.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Barrow, Larganboy, Co. Mayo. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement