Barrow - mound barrow, Creggymulgreny, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Barrows
In the rough pastureland of Creggymulgreny, a low circular mound sits in the landscape, easy to overlook and nearly impossible to examine.
What makes it quietly interesting is precisely that combination: its modest dimensions, its conspicuously flat top, and the uncertainty that still surrounds its origins. A mound barrow is a burial monument, typically prehistoric, consisting of an earthen or stone mound raised over one or more interments. This particular example is small even by those standards, measuring roughly 13.4 metres in overall diameter and rising only about 0.9 metres from the surrounding ground.
The mound was described in 1952 by McCaffrey, who catalogued it as a simple, round, flat-topped barrow, circular in plan, with the flattened summit measuring around 10 metres across. That pronounced flatness at the top was specifically remarked upon, which is what gives the site a degree of morphological interest. Whether the flat top is an original design feature or the result of later disturbance or agricultural use is not known. Inspections carried out in March 1983 and again in October 2001 found the mound so heavily overgrown with briars and thorn bushes that close examination was not possible on either occasion. The classification as a mound barrow therefore remains tentative, resting on McCaffrey's mid-century description rather than any more recent physical investigation.