Barrow (Ring Barrow), Rockbarton (Smallcounty By.), Co. Limerick

Co. Limerick |

Barrows

Barrow (Ring Barrow), Rockbarton (Smallcounty By.), Co. Limerick

A low circular earthwork sitting in flat, wet pasture near Lough Gur managed to escape the attention of Ordnance Survey cartographers entirely, never appearing on any of the historic OSi maps that charted this part of County Limerick in considerable detail.

That absence is part of what makes it interesting. The monument only entered the archaeological record relatively recently, and even now it is the kind of feature that slips in and out of visibility depending on which satellite image you consult and when it was taken.

A ring-barrow is a burial monument of prehistoric date, typically consisting of a low earthen mound enclosed by a circular ditch and sometimes an outer bank. This particular example, recorded under the reference LI031-176006-, sits roughly 90 metres south of the townland boundary shared by Ballycullane and Grange, and about 1.6 kilometres west-northwest of Lough Gur, itself one of the most archaeologically dense areas in Ireland. The barrow was first identified during the Bruff aerial photographic survey in 1986, captured in frame Bruff 36.04, where it appeared as a circular feature with an external diameter of approximately 5.5 metres. What makes the site more than an isolated curiosity is its context: it is one of nine ring-barrows clustered within a 200-metre radius, forming a ring-barrow cemetery alongside a related enclosure monument. That grouping suggests a landscape that was once deliberately organised around the commemoration of the dead, even if almost no surface trace of that organisation now survives.

The site is not straightforward to locate or visit. It lies on private agricultural land across wet, low-lying pasture, and its visibility at ground level is minimal. The feature is faintly discernible on orthoimages taken between 2005 and 2013, but had effectively disappeared from the most recent Google Earth imagery dated June 2018, most likely because of seasonal variation in soil moisture and grass cover, the very conditions that allow crop and soil marks to form and then vanish. Anyone with a serious interest in the monument would do better to consult the aerial survey records compiled by Edmond O'Donovan and uploaded to the national record in October 2020, which give a clearer sense of the site's form than anything visible on the ground.

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 (Ring Barrow), Rockbarton (Smallcounty By.), Co. Limerick. 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