What is recorded here

Carntierna is a cist in County Cork where hundreds of tons of stone fell away in 1832 to reveal rude flags and a fragile urn. Workmen broke the first vessel hoping for money, but they exposed only loss. John Windele later drew a second urn holding ashes, capturing its pale clay and lozenge carvings before it vanished. The chamber still waits beneath the soil, keeping what human greed and forgetfulness released.

Discovered in 1832 when 'several hundred tons of stone' (Borlase 1897, 13) were removed from cairn (CO0354-04902) and 'a chamber was found, formed of rude flags' (ibid.). In this was found 'the fragment of an urn' (ibid.) which apparently was 'broken by the workmen, to ascertain whether it contained money' (Lewis 1837, vol.1, 301). According to the antiquarian John Windele, 'in an adjoining chamber another urn was found containing a small quantity of ashes, on April 6th, 1837' (Borlase ibid.); Windele drew the vessel (see Gogan 1929, fig. 1) which he described as follows: 'Height 5 1/2 inches; diamater at top 5 3/4 inches; breadth at base 3 inches; thickness 3/16ths of an inch. It was of a pale reddish colour, of unbaked [?] sic. clay, and rudely carved with lozenges etc. It had a conical sort of cap' (Borlase ibid.). This vessel disappeared c. 1849 (O Murchu n.d., 42); Doody (1986, Cork No.16) identifies it as probably a Food Vessel Vase. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

A Neolithic passage tomb, dating to approximately 2500–2000 BCE, notable for the discovery of a chamber with a fragment of an urn, indicating funerary practices of the period.

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