Barrow — ring-barrow in Derroon

In gently undulating pasture, on the E side of the summit of a low broad ridge. A circular flat-topped mound (diam. 12.6m at base, 8m at top) surrounded by a fosse (Wth 2.4m at base) and an external earth and stone bank (Wth 5.6m; int. H 1.05m; ext. H 0.3m). The mound rises 1.35m above the base of the fosse. Recorded in 1836 as 'Sídheán a'Gháire' (OSL, 423), a translation of which was given in Wood-Martin (1887-8, 269) as 'the Fairy Mount of Laughter'. A bowl-barrow (SL033-050----) lies c. 50m to WSW. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005). This ring-barrow was severely damaged by land reclamation work in April 2006: the enclosing bank was levelled, the fosse infilled and several pits dug through the central mound. A rescue excavation (06E0720) was undertaken over three weeks in August 2006 by Margaret Keane, National Monuments Service (Keane 2009, 469, no. 1770). The excavation concentrated on the western side of the crest of the mound, and in addition a single trench was excavated across the fosse and external bank. The excavation of the fosse revealed that it was originally c. 2.5m wide at the top and c. 0.9m deep, with a sharply cut external edge, a rounded base, and a shallower profile on the internal mound side. A single post-hole was recorded just inside the edge of the mound crest. On the crest of the mound, the upper deposits consisted of spreads of charcoal-rich soils, with burnt bone and occasional artefacts interleaving with a spread of compact white/grey silt. Burnt material spread across the site may represent rakings of funeral pyre material. Beneath these layers, were a cluster of eight pits (max. dims. 0.3-1.3m) filled with deposits of burnt bone, in a clayey matrix with occasional artefacts. The interior edges of some of the pits were significantly charred. The most impressive pit (D c. 0.5m) had a basal deposit of cremated bone, and upper fills rich in charcoal and burnt bone. Artefacts recovered include ten glass beads or bead fragments, two unperforated glass beads/toggles, a single copper alloy spiral ring, five copper alloy pins, a copper alloy rod, copper alloy fragments, iron fragments, pieces of slag, worked flint and chert. (Keane 2009, 469, no. 1770). Date of revised upload: 10 March 2016