Barrow — mound barrow in Mullanakill

Situated on a natural rise of ground in well drained grassland, with good views of the surrounding countryside. A circular shaped earth and stone mound (H 3m) the summit of which slopes gently from E-W (approx. top diam. 19m; approx. base diam 30m), enclosed by a wide, shallow fosse (approx. Wth 5m) visible at N and E only. This appears to be the 'Ancient Rath or Tumulus’ referred to by William Chapman in his letter of 1793 to Austin Cooper, in which a stone built chamber had been found with some bones inside (Price 1942, 125-7). In 1792 the S side of the mound had been partially excavated by a local person who removed the top sod and exposed the cairn material covering the burial chamber or cist which appears to have been a wedge shaped chamber roughly aligned N-S which tapers to a point at the S end. The sides of the cist appear to consist of possibly 9 or 7 flagstones set on edge and roofed with flat lintels. The mound was described in 1793 as covered with 'stones from the size of a Man's fist to about 5 times as large. This was superinduced by a coat of gravel & earth of various thickness, but generally about 3 feet [0.91m]. The base of the Rath was about 90 yards [82m] in circumference, & its perpendicular Altitude about 30 feet [9.1m]' (ibid., 125). According to Chapman the mound and stone cairn covered a cist constructed with flagstones which contained 'a few scattered bones amongst which was a thigh bone, which was only 15 ins. [38cm] long, from the best information I could obtain, 4 or 5 human skeletons were found, but their skulls & most of their bones were soon carried away by the people' (ibid.). The stone material in the mound was used by local people in 1792 who at the time 'were building cottages at the North end of Castle Pollard to have recourse to the Rath as the cheapest and most convenient place for obtaining rubble stone' (ibid., 126). During the course of these works the local people exposed the S end of the stone cist which was covered by the cairn material and one of the side-stones was removed enabling access to the interior of the cist which contained the skeletal material which was also removed from the chamber. The cairn material subsided within a year of the disturbance covering the cist which was no longer accessible in 1793. See attached profile of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI. Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 25 May 2017