Stone Circles — Mullaghfarna

The record identifies Stone Circles — Mullaghfarna as Settlement cluster. It does not safely name every person, family or worker who used it, or fix all phases to exact years.

The recorded type points to a place used for homes, seasonal shelter, farming or shared daily work. That explains the likely everyday purpose without claiming people, tools or customs that the exact record does not prove.

The saved source says: On top of a plateau of exposed limestone pavement, at the lower N end of Doonaveeragh ridge. Rising abruptly from the S end of the plateau is the upper tier of the dissected ridge on top of which is a possible passage tomb (SL040-099----) and a cairn (SL040-100----). The sides of the ridge are formed of limestone cliffs and steep scree-covered slopes. To W, a gorge separates Doonaveeragh and the higher ridge of Carrowkeel. A dense concentration of roughly circular stone-walled huts (diam. 7-15m) cover the full E-W width of the ridge. Clusters of conjoined huts intermix with huts more loosely linked by short stretches of walling or by intervening walled courtyards. In many cases the enclosing walls (Wth 1.2-1.5m) consist of an inner and outer face of slabs or boulders with a rubble core. In some instances construction appears to involve the quarrying of karst to create the interior while leaving some bedrock in situ to define the perimeter. Internal partitions and entrances flanked by large jamb slabs also occur. Herity (1974, 157-8) suggested that this complex may have been a 'passage grave township' and notes that since many of the huts are covered with blanket bog a date of before 1000BC would be probable for the complex. About.

The saved record does not establish one certain ending. A change in farming, water level, trade, fuel, ownership, route or settlement pattern may have ended the use, but no single cause is claimed without evidence.

Stone Circles — Mullaghfarna fixes a real piece of work or daily life to an exact place. Even where names are lost, its remains show how people obtained food and materials, organised land, made homes or adapted to the local ground.