What is recorded here

Barrow is a vast trivallate earthwork in County Limerick where a small central mound rises above wide wet trenches and concentric banks. Westropp called it a ringfort, yet its shape and marshy setting suggest an older burial tradition rather than a defensive home. The site still stands in reclaimed pasture, preserving a boundary between human memory and water.

In reclaimed pasture 120m W of a watercourse that marks the townland boundary with Ballinvala. Earthwork (LI040-097----) lies 25m to SE. Impressive trivallate earthwork (overall diam. c. 105m) depicted on 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch map as a raised circular-shaped platform (diam. c. 25m) defined by a scarp with wide wet fosse (Wth c. 13m), bank visible from S-N-NE, with fosse, bank, fosse and external bank visible from NNE-S-NNW. Westropp (1917-19, 178) recorded this impressive trivallate monument as a ringfort which he described as follows; ‘The fort is a large earthwork in a very marshy field which, before the great drains were dug, must have been a shallow lake in wet weather. It has a low mote in the centre, girt by a ring of level field, fenced by a ring mound and two fosses and mounds, fairly concentric, and measuring 280 feet (85m) overall. There seems to be traces of a causeway through the marsh to the east, but there are no entrance gaps on that side. The fosses are as wide as the rings and are literally filled up with lush marsh vegetation, rushes, peppermint and such water-loving plants. The interspace round the mound is from 42 feet (12.8m) to 45 feet (13.7m) wide. The mote is from 6 feet to 7 feet (1.8m-2.1m) high, 60 feet to 62 feet (18.2m- 18.9m) across the summit, 87 feet (26.5m) to 90 feet (27.4m) in diameter at the base; it has no apparent house sites. The southern gangway is 15 feet (4.5m) wide. The monument is clearly visible as a raised circular shaped-area enclosed by three banks and two fosses on aerial photograph (ASIAP (304) 10) taken 13/09/2002. Visible on Google Earth orthoimage dated 14/09/2019 as a trivallate earthwork intersected at N by field bank running E-W with an agricultural yard immediately to N. Classification of this impressive monument is uncertain, Westropp suggested that this earthwork was the remains of a trivallate ringfort, however the small central platform enclosed by a wide wet fosse is more akin to a burial site in the barrow tradition rather than a trivallate ringfort. See attached aerial photograph (ASIAP (304) 10) and Google Earth orthoimages. Compiled by: Martin Fitzpatrick Date of upload: 15 June 2021

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