Barrow (Ring Barrow), Cromwell, Co. Limerick

Co. Limerick |

Barrows

Barrow (Ring Barrow), Cromwell, Co. Limerick

A small circular feature in a pasture field near Cromwell Hill in County Limerick went unrecorded on Ordnance Survey maps for generations, entirely invisible to anyone walking past it.

No cartographer marked it, no local placename pointed to it. It took a survey aircraft flying over the Bruff area in 1986 to catch the faint shadow of what lay beneath the grass, a circular cropmark betraying the outline of a prehistoric burial monument that the ground itself had quietly preserved.

The monument is a ring-barrow, a type of low funerary mound typically dating to the Bronze Age, defined here by a circular bank with an external fosse, which is simply a surrounding ditch dug on the outer edge of the bank. The feature measures approximately 7.5 metres in diameter and sits in pasture roughly 140 metres north of the summit of Cromwell Hill, which rises to 586 feet above sea level. It does not stand alone. A second ring-barrow lies approximately 65 metres to the southwest, and a bowl-barrow, a closely related monument type distinguished by its domed profile rather than a banked enclosure, sits around 140 metres to the south. The grouping suggests that this part of the hillside was used as a funerary landscape, with the elevated ground perhaps chosen deliberately. The site was identified from the 1986 Bruff aerial photographic survey and later confirmed through Ordnance Survey Ireland orthophotos taken between 2005 and 2012, as well as a Google Earth image dated 20 September 2020. The record was compiled by Martin Fitzpatrick and uploaded in March 2021.

Because the monument was identified through aerial photography rather than ground survey, it has no formal public access point or interpretive signage. The site sits in agricultural pasture, so any approach would require permission from the landowner. Cropmarks of this kind are typically most legible from the air during dry summers, when differential moisture retention in the soil reveals buried features as variations in grass colour or crop growth. At ground level, the bank and fosse may be detectable as a subtle rise and depression in the field surface, though years of agricultural use can reduce such traces considerably. The proximity of two related monuments within a short radius makes this corner of south County Limerick of genuine interest to anyone studying early prehistoric burial practices in the region.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Barrow (Ring Barrow), Cromwell, Co. Limerick. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement