Barrow — bowl-barrow in Knocknashammer OR Cloverhill

This barrow was excavated in 1977 by M.A. Timoney who published the following account (1987-8, 7): ‘A small tumulus, 11m in diameter and I.40m high, surrounded by a round-bottomed fosse and a slight bank, was sited on an east-west ridge on the opposite side of the road to the Cloverhill cist [SL014-211----]. Gravel excavation had removed the ridge to the east of the mound, leaving it at the top of a 15m high, gravel cliff. Some disturbance had taken place on the east side of the monument. Its pre-excavation appearance suggested that the monument had been formed by scarping the side of the high point of the gravel ridge and by levelling off its top: excavation, however, revealed that the monument was, in the main, artificially constructed. Beneath the sod, a layer of earth overlay an uneven mantle of largish stones. Beneath this was another layer of earth and an earlier mantle of largish stones, beneath which was the undisturbed glacial gravel. The two mantles of stones merged towards the edge of the mound where a well-constructed retaining wall, four to six courses high, remained at some places (elsewhere it had collapsed into the fosse). It seems possible to selectively, assign several stones to an arc formation. At the centre of the mound, in the earth cover between the two mantles of stones, two partly disarticulated burials were found, laid on a NE—SW axis in a poorly, it at all, prepared grave. One skull, that of a male of 20-30 years, was found beneath the pelvis of the lowermost skeleton while the other, that of a female of 30-40 years, was found about 30cm away from the nearest piece of bone. None of the bones of the spinal column, rib-cage, hands or feet was found. There were no accompanying grave goods nor any artifacts by which the monument can be dated.’ Macalister (Breuil and Macalister 1921-4, 5, footnote 1) records that a boulder carved with 'concentric ciclres' was on a mound to the south of the road to the south the field where the cist (SL014-211----) is located. It is possible that this may be the mound to which they refer and it may the stone that was incorporated in the outbuilding of the old school house to the south-west and subsequently removed to Sligo County musuem (see SL014-284010-) (pers. comm. M.A. Timoney). (Timoney 1984, 324, no. 15) Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 23 January 2014