 Poulawack Cairn in 2006 | |
  Shown within Ireland | |
| Location | Carran, The Burren |
|---|---|
| Region | Ireland |
| Coordinates | 53°01′55″N9°08′41″W / 53.032°N 9.14472°W |
| Type | Cairn |
| History | |
| Periods | Neolithic, Bronze Age |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1934 |
| Ownership | on private property |
| Public access | Yes |
Poulawack Cairn is a prehistoric burial cairn located in the Burren area of County Clare, Ireland.
The cairn is located in the townland of Poulawack, in the civil parish of Carran; it is situated on private property. There is also a cashel or ringfort nearby. [1] : 127–30 Similar structures of notable size are found on Turlough Hill and Slievecarran in the north-east of The Burren. [2] : 64–8
Today, the cairn is about 21 m in diameter and 2.5 m high in the centre.
It was first excavated by Hugh Hencken of Harvard University in 1934 and has since then been the subject of repeated investigations. Hencken originally thought that the cairn was constructed in two phases over a relatively short time in the early Bronze Age (2000 to 1500 BC). It is now consensus, however, that the cairn was in fact built over a period of c. 1,800 years in three separate phases. Phase I is a polygonal stone cist made from slabs of limestone, dated to around 3500 BC (Neolithic), containing the remains of three adults and one child plus several objects. It was likely covered by a low cairn of stones with a surrounding circle of stones 10 m in diameter. Phase II took place over 1,000 years later. At that time three more burial cists were inserted into the cairn, which had previously likely collapsed partially outwards over the kerb stones. This phase, around 2000 BC, included the burial of eight people, which may have taken place over an extended period of time. The third and final phase of construction occurred over a relatively short time at some point between 1600 and 1400 BC. The original cairn was covered with a new, larger cairn surrounded by a new circle of kerb stones roughly 14 m in diameter. Three additional cists were inserted at that time, containing three more burials. The remains of a fourth person were found placed directly on the limestone surface of the plateau, covered with slabs and then enclosed within the expanding cairn. Thus the cairn saw burials of just 16 people over a 1,800-year period - as at Poulnabrone dolmen, only very special people were apparently buried at this site. [3] : 9 [1] : 127–30
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are found throughout Britain and Ireland, with the largest number in Scotland.
The Burren is a karst/glaciokarst landscape centred in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland. It measures around 530 square kilometres (200 sq mi), within the circle made by the villages of Lisdoonvarna, Corofin, Gort and Kinvara. The area includes such natural features as Mullaghmore hill and Ailladie cliffs, and historic monuments such as Poulnabrone dolmen and Caherconnell Stone Fort. The Burren National Park covers a small part of the Burren and is the smallest of the six National Parks in Ireland, while the adjacent territory, including the Cliffs of Moher, is included in the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark.
The court cairn or court tomb is a megalithic type of chambered cairn or gallery grave. During the period, 3900–3500 BC, more than 390 court cairns were built in Ireland and over 100 in southwest Scotland. The Neolithic monuments are identified by an uncovered courtyard connected to one or more roofed and partitioned burial chambers. Many monuments were built in multiple phases in both Ireland and Scotland and later re-used in the Early Bronze Age.
A gallery grave is a form of megalithic tomb built primarily during the Neolithic Age in Europe in which the main gallery of the tomb is entered without first passing through an antechamber or hallway. There are at least four major types of gallery grave, and they may be covered with an earthen mound or rock mound.
Cahercommaun, sometimes Cahercommane, is a triple stone ringfort on the south-east edge of the Burren area, in Kilnaboy, near the rural village of Carran, in County Clare, Ireland. It was built in the 9th century.
Carran, also Carron, is a small village in County Clare, Ireland. It is in the Burren region, within a civil parish of the same name. It is notable mainly for being the birthplace of Michael Cusack, the inspirer and co-founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association. At the time of the 2011 Census, Carran had 106 inhabitants.
Porth Hellick Down is a Neolithic and Bronze Age archeological site located on the island of St Mary's, in the Isles of Scilly in Great Britain. The ancient burial monument encompasses a large cairn cemetery that includes at least six entrance graves, other unchambered cairns, and a prehistoric field system. The site is notable for having the largest assembly of surviving entrance graves.
Cairnpapple Hill is a hill with a dominating position in central lowland Scotland with views from coast to coast. It was used and re-used as a major ritual site for around 4000 years, and in its day would have been comparable to better known sites like the Standing Stones of Stenness. The summit lies 312 m above sea level, and is about 2 miles (3 km) north of Bathgate. In the 19th century the site was completely concealed by trees, then in 1947–1948 excavations by Stuart Piggott found a series of ritual monuments from successive prehistoric periods. In 1998, Gordon Barclay re-interpreted the site for Historic Scotland. It is designated a scheduled ancient monument.
Kilmartin Glen is an area in Argyll north of Knapdale. It has the most important concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age remains in mainland Scotland. The glen is located between Oban and Lochgilphead, surrounding the village of Kilmartin. In the village, Kilmartin Museum explains the stories of this ancient landscape and the people who dwelt there. There are more than 800 ancient monuments within a six-mile (ten-kilometre) radius of the village, with 150 monuments being prehistoric. Monuments include standing stones, a henge monument, numerous cists, and a "linear cemetery" comprising five burial cairns. Several of these, as well as many natural rocks, are decorated with cup and ring marks.
Poulnabrone dolmen is a large dolmen located in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland. Situated on one of the most desolate and highest points of the region, it comprises three standing portal stones supporting a heavy horizontal capstone, and dates to the early Neolithic period, with estimates to between 4200 BC and 2900 BC. Although not the largest, it is the best known of the approximately 172 dolmens in Ireland.
Little Meg is a small circle of large kerb stones which probably surrounded a Bronze Age kerb cairn. It is close to the village of Langwathby to the north-east of Penrith in the English county of Cumbria and is 650 metres north-east of the more famous stone circle of Long Meg and Her Daughters. It forms part of a complex of stone circles and cairns around the Long Meg site that includes the circle at Glassonby, Old Parks, and other sites since lost.
The Tregiffian Burial Chamber is a Neolithic or early Bronze Age chambered tomb. It is near Lamorna in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a rare form of a passage grave, known as an Entrance grave. It has an entrance passage, lined with stone slabs, which leads into a central chamber. This type of tomb is also found in the neighbouring Isles of Scilly.
Trethevy Quoit is a well-preserved megalithic structure between St Cleer and Darite in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is known locally as "the giant's house". Standing 9 feet (2.7 m) high, it consists of five standing stones capped by a large slab and was added to the Heritage at Risk Register in 2017.
The Niedertiefenbach tomb is a megalithic tomb located near Beselich-Niedertiefebach in Hesse, Germany. It belongs to the Wartberg culture of the Central European Later Neolithic. It is of special importance in Central European prehistory because of the sequence of collective burial layers contained within it.
The Tumulus of Bougon or Necropolis of Bougon is a group of five Neolithic barrows located in Bougon, near La-Mothe-Saint-Héray, between Exoudun and Pamproux in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.
Quoyness chambered cairn is a Neolithic burial monument located on the island of Sanday in Orkney, Scotland. Similar to Maeshowe in design, the tomb was probably built around 3000 BC. The skeletal remains of several people were uncovered in the tomb during excavation in 1867. The monument was partially restored and reconstructed after a second excavation during the early 1950s, to display the different original stages of construction of the tomb. The property is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.
Oughtmama is a civil parish in County Clare. It lies in the Burren, a region in the northwest of the county. It contains many antiquities, including three early-medieval Christian churches, ruined castles, prehistoric cairns and ring forts and two Martello Towers built in the early 19th century.
Creevykeel Court Tomb is one of the finest examples of a court tomb remaining in Ireland. The monument is located in the N15 Donegal to Sligo road, 50 meters north of Creevykeel cross-roads close to Cliffoney village in County Sligo. The original name for the Creevykeel monument is Caiseal an Bhaoisgin, the Fort of Bhaoisgin, Tobar an Bhaoisgin being the name of the well near the cairn. A second megalithic monument existed 300 meters to the north, but it was demolished around 1890.
Umm Al Maa is an archaeological site in northwest Qatar located in the municipality of Al Khor, near the border with Al Shamal. It is most notable for its ancient cemetery, which is thought to date to the Bronze Age.
Balbirnie Stone Circle is an archaeological site, a stone circle on the north-eastern edge of Glenrothes, in Fife, Scotland. The site was in use from the late Neolithic period to the late second millennium BC.