What is recorded here

Tumulus is a Bronze Age burial mound in County Carlow where thick gravel and earth still cover older Neolithic work. At least eleven people rested in oval pits beside five cremations, some crouched like sleepers refusing to leave the living world. A faint fosse may circle the mound, suggesting the dead were not forgotten but marked, watched, and kept within a boundary the fields could not erase.

National Monument No. 566. This record relates to the Bronze Age phase of activity superimposed on Linkardstown-type cist and tumulus (CW008-031002-), consisting of the mantling of existing sod mound with thick layers of gravel and earth (overall dims. H c. 5m, diam. c. 22m). At least eleven unprotected burials in oval pits (two with traces of organic lining), five cremations and six inhumations at least three of which were crouched. Burial 1 was associated with a bowl food vessel, burial 5 was associated with a plano-convex flint knife and burial 6 was associated with small flint scraper. An aerial photograph taken in 1989 shows a previously-unrecorded fosse-like feature (CW008-031003-) surrounding the mound (pers. comm. G. Barrett; SMR file). It is possible that this fosse may date to this or the earlier Neolithic phase of activity at this site. (Raftery 1974; Brindley and Kilfeather 1993, 3, no. 12; 5, No. 24) Revised by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 12 March 2013

Bronze Age tumulus, dating to approximately 2000–700 BCE. It is significant as an example of a Linkardstown-type cist and tumulus, reflecting early funerary practices and mound-building traditions in the region.

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