
What is recorded here
Poulnabrone’s square enclosure sits on a pasture shelf above the tomb, its low earthen banks and scattered boulders marking a box roughly seventeen metres across. People may have gathered there to watch the plateau, keep livestock, or perform rituals beside the larger monument, though no dig has yet brought back proof. The east bank rises slightly, the west end holds two large stones, and the whole place remains a quiet outline rather than a finished story.
At the N edge of a shelf in pasture, overlooking a karst plateau on which stands Poulnabrone portal tomb (CL009-034001-) c. 124m to the NNW. Identified by Ann Lynch. This square enclosure (int. dims. c. 17m NW-SE; c. 17m NE-SW) is defined by a low earthen bank at the N and S, and less substantially by an intermittent line of prone boulders at the W, and a single flat stone at the E. The S bank (Wth 1.5-1.7m; av. H 0.1-0.2m) is highest at its E end (H 0.4-0.5m). There are some probable field stones partly overlying this bank. The N bank (Wth 1.2m; H. 0.2m-0.4m) is also more substantial at its E end (L 4m; H 0.4m) and several stones protrude from this bank. Two large stones (one L 1.7m; another L 1.3m; H 0.45m; T 0.2m) set into the S side of the bank's W end may be part of an inner facing. Archaeological testing c. 50m to the SW did not produce any archaeological material (Hull 2008).
References
Hull, G. 2008 Poulnabrone dolmen parking site, Poulnabrone, Clare. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2005: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 39. Bray. Wordwell.
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott
Date of upload: 16 August 2022
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- What survives
- Recorded monument
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