Barrow (Ring Barrow), Rathmore North, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Barrows
A low circular earthwork in a field of pasture might seem unremarkable at first glance, but the ring barrow at Rathmore North repays closer attention.
These monuments, raised mounds or banks enclosing a central space and associated with prehistoric burial practices, are found across Ireland, yet this particular example has an unusual detail that sets it apart: the entrance gap on the eastern side, roughly two metres wide, is not simply a gap but a deliberate, finished feature, with the bank on either side squared off and held in place by a stone revetment. Someone, long ago, took care over the threshold.
The monument sits on undulating, low-lying pasture to the north-west of the Camoge river, and its setting has a quiet logic to it. The surrounding landscape is almost amphitheatrical, with a broken arc of hills encircling County Limerick from Foynes in the north-west around to Drumbcolliher in the south and the Galty Mountains in the south-east, and the barrow looks out across this panorama. The structure itself consists of a broken circuit of bank, approximately five metres wide and one metre high, enclosing a silted-up fosse, a term for a ditch, that is four metres wide and survives to a depth of around 0.4 metres. The overall diameter is approximately 42 metres. The detail about the revetted entrance was noted by O'Kelly in the mid-1940s, and the site was compiled into the record by Geraldine Stout, with aerial photographs taken by the Archaeological Survey of Ireland in September and October of 2002.
The monument lies on private agricultural land, so access would require the landowner's permission. The aerial photographs in the ASI archive suggest the earthwork reads more clearly from above than at ground level, where the grassed-over bank can blend into the general undulation of the field. If you are visiting the wider area, the Camoge river to the south-east provides a useful orientation point. The eastern entrance, with its carefully reveted edges, is the detail worth seeking out.