What is recorded here

Barrow stands on high mountain ground in County Offaly, one of five mounds linked by local tradition to the inauguration site of the O’Flanagans of Cinél Arga. Its shallow circular mound and uneven fosse suggest quarrying rather than deliberate burial construction, yet the cluster may have marked a ritual landscape where power was claimed beneath open sky. The hilltop still holds that tension: part practical excavation, part ceremonial memory, with human ambition written in stone and forgotten in soil.

Situated on high ground in mountainous area. Site consists of a low circular mound (diam. c. 10m; H 0.5m) enclosed by a poorly preserved fosse (Wth 1.3 - 3m at N; ext. D 3m at S) with no evidence of an outer bank. Site appears to have been quarried out of the side of the hill thus explaining the difference in external depth of fosse from N to S. Unusual location and morphology of site casts some doubt about its antiquity. One of a group of five barrows (OF037-008001/002/004/005-). According to local tradition these barrows are located on a hilltop which was the inauguration site of the O’Flanagans of Cinél Arga (Feehan 1979, 143). It is possible that these burial mounds form part of a ritual landscape associated with this inauguration site. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 09 August 2012

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