Doughbranneen

Situated on bare karst pavement on the summit (OD 1041’) of Carnseefin Mountain, overlooking Galway Bay and with extensive views in all directions. Marked and named ‘Doughbranneen’ on the 1842 and 1915 eds. of the OS 6-inch maps and named ‘Dobhach Bhrainín’ on Robinson’s map (1977). Along with the Cairn named ‘Carnsefein’ (Carn Suí Finn) c. 470m NNE, on a lower OD (726’), the name suggests that it formed a focus for Fianna myths, which may have played an important role in medieval political discourse (Fitzpatrick and Hennessy 2017). Westropp (1901, 7) recorded it as nearly levelled but it remains an imposing structure. The cairn consists of two distinct elements, an earlier terraced and potentially multi-phased cairn, on top of which is a later smaller cairn. Both cairns have undergone restoration and consolidation works, the earlier cairn by Aegis Archaeology (Coyne and Lynch 2017a and b) and the later trigonometrical station by Earthstone (Curran 2017). The earlier cairn is roughly circular (18.3m E–W x 19.6m N–S; max H c. 2.5m) and built of limestone stones and slabs of varying sizes (Coyne and Lynch 2017a and b). Slippage of the cairn has likely enlarged the area it covers (original est. diam. c. 14m). Remnants of a possible kerb (stones max. dims. L 1.75m; H 0.4m; T 0.08m), potentially facing a revetment, are visible from W–S. Elsewhere the outer edge is covered by slippage. A series of internal revetments, that may have formed terraces, are also occasionally visible. From W, the outer kerb (av. H 0.4m) retains a flat terrace (Wth 0.8m). From there, a second revetment, a drystone wall (H 0.3m), rises to a second flat terrace (Wth 1.4m). Above this a third revetment, another drystone wall (H 0.35m), rises to retain the top of the cairn. Stone slippage gathered from the SW and E has been replaced on the cairn (Coyne and Lynch 2017b). The later cairn (H 1.55m; diam. at base 2.5m) is of drystone construction and centrally placed on top of the earlier cairn. In 2017 (Curran 2017), it underwent extensive conservation. The earlier cairn is likely a burial cairn of prehistoric date, originally of Neolithic or Bronze Age date. The various revetments likely represent a series of subsequent enlargements or ‘wrapping events’ (cf Richards 2013), added when encompassing new burials, as was the case at Poulawack cairn (CL009-032018-) (Hencken and Movius 1935; Brindley and Lanting 1992) and some cairns surrounding wedge tombs (Ó Maoldúin 2015). These may have provided terraces, as proposed by the conservation team (Coyne and Lynch 2017a and b), or may originally have been the full height of the monument, as is evident at Turlough Hill cairn (CL006-017002-) and for some internal revetments at Slievecarran cairn (CL006-022----) and as revealed by excavation in Poulawack (Hencken and Movius 1935). The smaller later cairn is likely a 19th-century trigonometrical station as indicated on the 1842 ed. map.