2005:704 - MULLACH BHÉIL, Kerry

In summer of 2002 a retrospective archaeological impact assessment report was requested by Dúchas, The Heritage Service, following complaints by hill-walkers that the construction of a new medium voltage power line by AC Power for the ESB linking the eastern or Cloghane area of Mount Brandon with the western area focused around Glin North had impacted on the archaeological resource/amenity of the area. This new link-line commences near Lough Duff in the Owenmore valley, traverses the pass at Mullach Bhéil (Mullaghveal on older OS maps) and continues along and beside an ancient routeway to eventually connect with an existing electrical line at Glin North.

The monument most heavily impacted during these operations was a cairn, SMR 43:42, situated in the townland of Mullach Bhéil. Construction works had demolished and removed c. 30–40% of this monument. The developers’ construction contractors removed a substantial section of the monument by track machine in an effort to improve the trackway in this upland location. Following negotiations with the ESB and Dúchas, Eachtra were retained to clean, record and reinstate the damaged part of this monument. Progress on the project was delayed due to the difficulty of identifying and acquiring a suitable body of stone for reinstatement of the cairn and for having to wait for a long enough period of sustained dry weather to allow the stone to be moved up the treacherous and steep track to the top of the pass. The works were not finished until June 2005, when a renewed effort was made to bring the project to completion.

The cairn is situated on the saddle of the mountain at the summit of the pass at Mullach Bhéil. It is recorded on the first- (1841) and second-edition OS maps, but no mention is made of it in the OS Name Books. Although cairns, especially hilltop cairns, often cover prehistoric tombs, the cairn at Mullach Bhéil is most likely a wayside death cairn, meaning that it commemorates the spot where a traveller or pilgrim died but was not interred. Another example is located in a similar topographical position near the top of the nearby Conor Pass (An Chonair) and this cairn marks the site where a woman died in her efforts to travel the pass in a snowstorm (local information). Wayside death cairns are generally found in elevated, difficult positions and nearly always along ancient routeways and mountain passes.

Initially, the area around the damaged part of the cairn was cleaned back to establish the extent of the impact. It was found that c. 35% of the northern side of the cairn had been removed down to subsoil. The impacted area had therefore been completely destroyed and no salvage excavation could be undertaken. The section resulting from the removal of the northern part of the cairn was fairly straight and regular and was further rectified to allow accurate recording. A plan of the mound was made to record the extent of the area destroyed and thus the original overall shape of the monument. This was possible, as the footprint of the absent part of the cairn could be identified on the ground, a fact which also facilitated the reinstatement of the monument.

In acquiring the stone for reinstatement of the cairn it was important that a good match be acquired in terms of three factors: stone type (old red sandstone), size and extent of weathering/lichen growth. The source used was a disused sheep shelter in the townland of Mullach Bhéil, near the eastern base of the saddle on which the cairn lies.

In recording the damaged section of the cairn no evidence of internal stratigraphy was identified, the construction method appearing to be that of uncoursed, unsorted random arrangements of varying sizes of stone, mainly between about 0.1 and 0.25m. This type of construction would agree with the gradual, unplanned accumulation of a wayside cairn through the practice of individual travellers adding single stones over an extended period. This cairn therefore probably has a genesis somewhere in or between the early medieval and early modern periods. Nevertheless, uncoursed cairns of dump construction do occur in the prehistoric period and such an origin for this example cannot be ruled out.

Ballycurreen Industrial Estate, Kinsale Road, Cork