Barrow (Ring Barrow), Moanmore, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Barrows
In a field of wet pasture in Moanmore, County Tipperary, a small circular earthwork sits on a natural ridge with a view northward over what may once have been a flood plain.
It is easy to overlook, measuring just 3.6 metres north to south and 3.3 metres east to west, but its shape is deliberate and ancient. This is a ring barrow, a type of funerary monument common in prehistoric Ireland, typically consisting of a low central mound or flat area enclosed by a circular ditch and an outer bank. The ditch here, known in archaeological terminology as a fosse, runs between 1.3 and 1.4 metres wide and survives to a depth of between 7 and 13 centimetres. The outer bank, best preserved in the north-west quadrant, rises only slightly above the surrounding ground, its interior height recorded at around 13 centimetres.
The monument does not stand entirely alone. A second ring barrow lies roughly 55 metres to the east-north-east, suggesting this part of Moanmore once held some significance as a place for the dead, or at least for marking the dead within the landscape. The ridge on which this barrow sits is a natural one, but its elevation above the low-lying ground to the north would have made it visible, and conspicuous placement was rarely accidental in prehistoric monument building. A drainage channel running north to south along the eastern edge of the site has the incidental effect of accentuating the higher ground there, making the eastern arc of the monument appear more pronounced than it might otherwise. A land drain cuts across the southern boundary roughly 3.5 metres away, flanked by a field boundary, and the interior of the barrow itself slopes gently northward under a covering of grass. The surrounding land has been improved for agriculture, meaning the broader context in which the monument once sat has been considerably altered, leaving the barrow as a quiet anomaly in an otherwise ordinary field.