Barrow — bowl-barrow in Clondalever (moyashel & Magheradernon By.)

Monument surveyed in 2015 and described by McGuinness (2015, 41-3) as following: ‘Well-preserved, approximately circular, steep-sided mound (Diam. 14.8m N-S x 14.1m E-W) with flattened upper surface (Diam. 7m N-S x 6m E-W); although the ASI account of 13/9/73 notes a very slight slope to W [SMR file], the over-riding impression from a distance is that the upper surface is approximately level. Except for a short arc on NW side, there appears to be no clear evidence of a ditch, although the 1973 ASI account also noted similar traces on S side [SMR file]. Where highest at NE, mound rises 2.28m above ground level; at lower NW side, it rises only 1.77m above the visible arc of ditch, which is 3.3m in width and sunk 0.17m below external ground level. Despite the sloping ground on which it is located, upper surface of mound has been kept approximately level, so that the amount of mound-material varies at different points around its circumference; as an illustration of this, the sloping N side of mound, from edge of flat summit to ground level, measures 6.5m, whereas the corresponding dimension on the S side is only 4m. Terraces or ledges at different heights around the sides of the mound appear to be attributable to a combination of solifluction and animal movement. Barrow lies in pasture on a NW-SE ridge, apparently a kame, to NW of highest point so that it is on ridge top sloping down to NW. Just 4m N of barrow a scoop has been taken from side of ridge; although it has the superficial appearance of a quarry or sand-pit—one ASI fieldworker taking it for a ‘quarry hole’ [SMR file]’— few stones are visible and there is a kind of low bank around the mouth of the hollow on the downhill side: Such features are ubiquitous in the glaciated Westmeath landscape, not uncommonly in the vicinity of barrows (WM020-015----; WM027-020----), and they appear to represent ‘dead-ice hollows’, left when fragments of retreating glaciers left partly embedded in the ground have melted away (pers. comm. Seamus O’Brien); a second such hollow lies just over 60m to E, and both of these were in existence in the 1830s, when depicted on the First Edition OS 6“ map (1838). There is a kettle-hole lake visible 100m to ENE; a second one lies 150m to NNW, and a third lies 170m to ESE, beyond which, and prominently visible 200m to E, is a remarkable fortified glacial ridge hillock, identified as a ringfort (WM013-017----) by the ASI but showing little resemblance to a typical example of that type of monument; instead the irregular-shaped summit of the ridge has traces of a low stone wall around it, with more significant earthen ramparts around its base, now best preserved in the NW quadrant. Visibility is excellent from the present barrow, with the two denuded mound-barrows (WM013-003----; WM013-112----), or at least their sites, visible 1.5km to NE on opposite side of valley of the Drumhurlin River; the unclassified-barrow (WM013-020----) near the summit of a low hill c. 750m to E would be visible but for trees. See attached profile of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by David McGuinness. Date of upload: 5 February 2016