Mound, Tobernea East, Co. Limerick

Co. Limerick |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Mound, Tobernea East, Co. Limerick

A small circular mound sitting in reclaimed pasture in County Limerick managed to escape the attention of Ireland's first systematic mapmakers entirely, only to reappear, quietly, on a later survey half a century on.

That gap in the record is part of what makes the earthwork in Tobernea East worth a second look. The mound, roughly ten metres in diameter, sits approximately 110 metres west of the field boundary that separates the townland from neighbouring Graiganster, and its absence from the 1840 edition of the Ordnance Survey Ireland six-inch map raises more questions than it answers.

When the OSi produced its revised twenty-five-inch map series in 1897, the feature was recorded as a raised, circular-shaped area or small mound. Whether it was overlooked in 1840, had not yet been exposed by changes to the surrounding land, or simply did not register as significant to the earlier surveyors is unclear. Reclaimed pasture of this kind, land that has been drained, levelled, and turned to agricultural use over generations, often swallows earlier earthworks or alters their visibility considerably. Circular mounds of this general type in the Irish landscape can represent a range of origins, from early medieval burial sites and ring barrows to the remains of later agricultural or industrial features, though nothing in the current record firmly assigns this example to any one category. The record was compiled by Martin Fitzpatrick and uploaded in August 2021.

The mound's outline remains visible on Digital Globe orthoimagery taken between 2011 and 2013, as well as on Google Earth images, which gives anyone with an internet connection a reasonable first impression of its form before visiting. On the ground, the surrounding pasture means access depends on landowner permission, as is standard with earthworks sitting in private farmland. The townland boundary with Graiganster, marked by a field boundary to the east, serves as a useful navigational reference point. Given how subtle the rise is, visiting in lower vegetation months, late winter or early spring, would make the earthwork easier to distinguish from the surrounding field surface.

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Pete F
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