What is recorded here

Grave of the Kings marks a low stone mound in County Mayo where two unnamed rulers may still sleep beneath brambles and blackthorn. The place sits on a visible rise beside ordinary pasture, large enough to be seen but small enough to be forgotten by passing traffic. What is certain is that people kept the name alive across centuries, shaping memory around a handful of jumbled stones rather than a grand monument.

Located on a prominent rise in rolling average pasture. Nephin dominates the horizon to S. This possible burial mound is named ‘Grave of Kings’ on the 1838 and 1922 OS 6-inch maps. It is mentioned by John O’Donovan in the 1838 OS Letters as follows: ‘In the townland of Kildaree (Cill Dá Rig, church of the two kings) in the south east of this parish, there is a grave in which two kings…are said to be interred.’ (O’Flanagan 1927, 98). It consists of a low mound or cairn (8m N–S; 4.8m E–W; H 1m at E, 0.5m at W) of jumbled stones. The upper layer of loose stones is most likely the result of field clearance. Three large rounded boulders protrude from the mound, one at the N edge, one roughly in the centre, and the largest at the SW edge. The mound is partly sod-covered, and largely obscured by clumps of brambles and blackthorn. A remnant of a N–S field fence lies 2m to W. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 25 July 2019

A possible Bronze Age burial mound; its name and early map references suggest local historical significance, though specific archaeological details remain unrecorded.

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