Barrow (Ring Barrow), Meennaraheeny, Co. Cork

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Barrow (Ring Barrow), Meennaraheeny, Co. Cork

On a south-facing slope at Meennaraheeny in north Cork, a ring barrow sits quietly in rough grazing land, its circular outline still legible despite centuries of slow collapse and deliberate disturbance.

Ring barrows are prehistoric funerary monuments, typically Bronze Age, consisting of a central burial area enclosed by a surrounding ditch, or fosse, and an outer earthen or stone bank. What makes this particular example slightly unusual is its material: where many ring barrows are built primarily of earth and turf, this one is constructed from the same kind of stone used in cairns, giving it a character closer to a stone monument than a purely earthen one.

The monument measures roughly ten metres across east to west and just over nine metres north to south, making it a modest but reasonably complete example of the type. The interior platform rises about forty-five centimetres above ground level and is enclosed by a fosse of similar depth, with an outer stone bank reaching sixty centimetres in height. That bank has partially collapsed inward over time, silting up the fosse around its south-eastern to south-south-eastern arc until it is almost completely infilled on that side. On the eastern section, the bank is noticeably lower than elsewhere, possibly a result of the same gradual decay. A thin layer of peat now covers the whole site, which is consistent with the upland character of the surrounding landscape. More telling, perhaps, are the numerous hollows visible across the interior surface, each one marking a spot where stones have been lifted and taken away, almost certainly for use in field walls or farm buildings nearby. The monument has not been excavated in any formal sense, and no burial record is attached to it, but the removal of its fabric over generations has left it visibly pocked and diminished.

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Meennaraheeny, Co. Cork
52.30060062,-9.18146325

Ref: CO00200

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