What is recorded here

Indicated is a vast multiperiod field system stretching seven kilometres across Gortaclare Mountain, Coolnatullagh valley, Doomore and Slievecarran in County Clare. Mound walls, slab boundaries and contour lines still mark the ground, enclosing prehistoric farmsteads, cairns, a wedge tomb and three fulacht fia. The landscape has carried human life for so long that its fields belong to several ages at once.

An extensive multiperiod field system (c. 7km SW–NE; 2.2km NW–SE) extending across Gortaclare Mountain, Coolnatullagh valley, Doomore and Slievecarran comprised of mound, mound/slab walls and contour walls much of which is visible on Digital Globe (2011-13) and of OSi Aerial Premium (2012-2018) orthophotographs. It encompasses at least three prehistoric farmsteads (CL006-146----, CL006-098002- and CL006-145----) numerous cairns and mounds, at least one wedge tomb (CL006-042009-), three fulacht fia (CL006-045003-, CL006-045004- and CL006-045005-), several hut sites and numerous other monuments (Carey 2009; Jones et al., 2011). Excavation of a cairn (CL006-044----) within its bounds that produced evidence of burial in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, and comparisons with the dated field systems on Roughan Hill (Jones 2016), suggest large parts of this system are prehistoric in date (Jones et al., 2011). Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 13 September 2021

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