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Barrow

Barrow, ring-barrow

What is recorded here

Barrow in County Kildare is a two-period ring-barrow where one adult faced northwest before twelve more people, including two children, joined the circle with heads to the west. O'Riordáin excavated part of it in 1950, uncoverting flint, a polychrome glass bead and pottery sherds beside the enlarged central mound. The repeated digging, banking and burial suggest a place kept alive across generations rather than abandoned after a single ceremony.
A raised circular area (diam. c. 20m) containing a small central mound (diam. 3.2m), defined by an inner bank, a fosse, and traces of slight outer bank (overall diam. 32m). Partial excavation by O'Riordáin (1950, 259-269: Site 6) revealed a two-period monument. Phase 1: comprised a low central mound of earth and stone covering the extended inhumation of an adult (head to NW), enclosed by two concentric fosses (c. 6m and c. 8m from the centre) and two smaller fosses close to the central mound - a possible multiple ring-barrow. O'Riordáin suggested that the larger fosses had external banks and that the smaller fosses provided material for the central mound. Phase 2: a cemetery of twelve extended inhumations (head to W), including two children, three adults, two adult females and four adult males was enclosed by the large fosse and bank visible today, and the central mound was also enlarged during this phase. Finds (none directly associated with burials) included six pieces of flint (two worked), one polychrome glass bead (white, yellow and blue), several sherds of medieval pottery and three other sherds with horizontal-line decoration. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011
Ring-barrow, likely dating to the Early Bronze Age (c. 2000–1500 BCE). This type of monument typically served as a burial site and reflects early communal burial practices in Ireland.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

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