Mound, Ludden More, Co. Limerick

Co. Limerick |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Mound, Ludden More, Co. Limerick

At the northern edge of a low hill in County Limerick, an electricity pole marks the approximate spot where a substantial earthen mound once stood.

There is nothing else to indicate what was there. The mound has been absorbed entirely into the improved pasture around it, leaving no ridge, no shadow in the grass, no depression to suggest something was removed. It is, in the most literal sense, an absence.

The mound was documented by Barry between 1916 and 1919, and at that time it was a significant feature: roughly 150 feet around the base and between ten and twelve feet high. Barry even included a photograph of it in his account, which means we know what it looked like and can appreciate how completely it has since vanished. Earthen mounds of this kind, raised in the prehistoric or early medieval period, were sometimes burial monuments, sometimes platforms for structures, and sometimes markers of territorial boundaries. Their exact function at any given site is rarely certain without excavation. Barry also noted, in the same survey, a second mound and two enclosures in the wider area around Ludden More, though their precise locations have not been established since. That cluster of features suggests this was once a landscape with several layers of deliberate human activity, now almost entirely erased.

The site sits on ground that opens out into extensive views to the west, north, and east, which may itself be a clue to why the spot was considered significant in the first place. Elevated positions with wide sightlines were often chosen deliberately by the people who built such monuments. A visitor today would find ordinary farmland, and should expect nothing more dramatic than that. The value of coming here, if there is one, is in holding Barry's description alongside what you see: a photograph from a century ago, a measurement that once meant something solid, and an electricity pole standing in as an accidental placeholder for the thing that is no longer there.

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 Mound, Ludden More, 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