Cairn, Dromroe, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Cairns

Cairn, Dromroe, Co. Kerry

On a south-east-facing slope above the valley of the Dromoghty River, a small circular cairn pushes up through the surface of the cutaway bog as though reluctant to be swallowed.

It is modest in scale, roughly three metres across and little more than half a metre high, built from stones of various sizes and shapes rather than any single selected material. What gives it a degree of definition is the trace of stone kerbing still visible around its base, a low collar of upright or tightly packed stones that prehistoric builders used to retain the body of a cairn and mark its outer edge.

Cairns of this kind appear throughout the Irish uplands and are generally associated with Bronze Age activity, sometimes marking burials, sometimes serving as territorial or ritual landmarks in a landscape that was, at the time of their construction, more open and heavily used than the rough hill pasture and bog that surrounds this one today. The Dromroe example is not large by any measure, but its proximity to a recorded hut site just thirty-two metres to the north-east adds a layer of interest. The two features together suggest this corner of Kerry was once a place of sustained human presence, where people lived close enough to whatever the cairn represented to have been part of the same small world.

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Pete F
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