Barrow (Ring Barrow), Friarstown, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Barrows
A prehistoric burial monument sits in a field in County Limerick that never appeared on any historical Ordnance Survey map.
It evaded that documentation entirely, remaining unrecorded until a low-flying aircraft passed over in 1986 and changed things. The site belongs to a category known as a ring-barrow, a type of burial mound typical of the Bronze Age in Ireland, characterised by a circular earthen bank or ditch enclosing a central area where human remains were interred. This particular example was only brought to official attention through the Bruff aerial photographic survey of that year, catalogued as survey reference Bruff AP 4/3656.
What the camera revealed was a circular fosse, the term for a cut or dug ditch, with an external diameter of approximately nine metres. It sits on flat pasture roughly 280 metres north of the Camoge River, close to the townland boundaries where Friarstown meets both Ballingoola to the south and Ballyblake to the west. Two further ring-barrows, recorded separately under the reference LI023-214/243, lie about 150 metres to the west, suggesting this part of south County Limerick was once a meaningful place in the funerary landscape of whoever farmed or moved through it in prehistory. The aerial photograph gave the initial identification, but the monument remained invisible on the Ordnance Survey orthoimage captured between 2005 and 2012. It reappeared, faintly but perceptibly, on Google Earth imagery dated 28 June 2018, compiled by Edmond O'Donovan and uploaded to the national record in September 2020.
There is no formal visitor infrastructure here, and the site sits on private agricultural land, so any approach should be made with the relevant landowner's permission. The monument itself is not visible at ground level in any obvious way; what makes it legible is the kind of differential crop growth or soil variation that shows up best from above or in certain light conditions, particularly during dry summers when buried features betray themselves through parched grass. The nearby river and townland boundaries offer useful orientation for anyone consulting a map, and the cluster of ring-barrows 150 metres to the west is recorded in the national Sites and Monuments Register, which can be consulted online before any visit.