Barrow in Cloghanumera

Monument surveyed in 2015 and described by McGuinness (2015, 40) as following: ‘Fairly well-preserved, previously unrecorded ring-barrow (Diam. 19m N-S x 18.2m c. E-W), comprising a low, flat-topped circular mound (Diam. (base) 9m N-S x 8.2m E-W; Diam. (upper surface) 6m N-S x 6m E-W) with quite well-defined edge, surrounded by a broad, flat-based ditch, and an external bank which has be removed for a few metres on W side due to poaching or other erosion. Greatest height of mound over ditch is 0.46m at SSW; where bank is best preserved at NW, it is 2.50m in width and rises 0.15m over ditch and 0.31m over external ground level, but is 0.22m lower than the central mound; width of ditch at NW is 3.30m. A modern field fence runs NE-SW across SE edge of site; this is just within the line of an older field ditch, shown on First Edition OS 6” map (1838), which appears to have removed the outer bank for a stretch of 11m at this point. There appear to be traces of a second, outer ditch, between 5.20 and 5.50m in width, on N side; and possibly a second bank beyond this, but these are both very faint and are not shown on the plan; the ditch is best preserved in an arc running from a stream (see below), which lies 2.50m from inner bank at SW side of site, through N to NE where it reaches the modern field fence; and further possible traces of outer face of ditch and outer bank are visible across field fence to SE. Unless the stream has been redirected at some point, outer bank could never have been complete on SW side. Although land on which it is sited slopes down gradually towards stream to SW, barrow has nonetheless been kept level by making central mound higher and more massive on SW side. A stream flows from NW-SE immediately SW of barrow. A second ring-barrow (No. 14) lies across the stream c. 65m to WSW in Cooksborough townland, and on a hilltop in the same townland, strikingly visible across stream 120m to SSW, is a mound-barrow (WM020-026----); two further mound-barrows (WM020-027----; WM020-028----), now destroyed, lay on elevated ground on same side of stream as this c. 70m or more to NE in Killynan townland. There is a small natural lake (kettle-hole?) at foot a rise c. 50m to N. It is notable that while there are many local heights all round, this and the other ring-barrow (No. 14) have been deliberately placed in low-lying locations prone to flooding (pers. comm. Landowner).