County: Limerick Site name: RAHEENNAMADRA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 41:11 Licence number: 96E0032
Author: Victor M. Buckley, Archaeological Survey, National Monuments Service
Site type: Barrow - unclassified
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 572856m, N 630249m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.423067, -8.399078
In January 1996 it was reported to the National Monuments Service that the above site had been levelled. Emergency survey and excavation showed that the site had been a large barrow, approx. 18m in diameter and 5m high. It had been levelled to the surrounding ground level. A large, 1.5m-square igneous erratic was still in place in the centre of where the mound had stood, suggesting that this stone may have had some ritual significance.
No trace of an enclosing fosse was noted, but an area (3m2) of pyre debris, 0.2m deep, on the old ground surface was excavated. Some human remains, both cremated and uncremated, were retrieved. Analysis by Laureen Buckley revealed that the uncremated remains consisted of two adults, sex indeterminate; one adult and one juvenile were identified from the cremated remains. Several fragments of prehistoric pottery were also recovered.
51 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2
