Eire forum 90 room
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Rockhopper,
This is probably a silly question, have you looked at the old OS maps on OSI for the area? Just to get an idea of what population / buildings there may have been pre-famine?

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,591271,743300,0,10

If you click into this and then the historic 6" you will find the maps for the area.

Just an idea and ive found everything mentioned interesting but again im not really qualified to comment on the shapes etc of the rock-piles.

I did find it amazing what the pre-famine settlement patterns were like in ireland, I wonder whether there may have been some more settlement up around this area at that time than now? Again just something to rule out.

There's nothing marked on the 1847 maps except two nearby trackways which are still evident. The rockfield is in a very exposed location at around 1100ft asl. Theres no sign of habitation such as old foundation marks, either rectangular or circular, no signs of collapse, which can be found at the medeival site at Kilbrien upper(Waterford inventory).
Other rockfields in the Knockmealdowns are even more distinct, with circular and rectangular mounds surrounded by kerbing. Likewise here, there's no sign of walls or habitation. All the rockfields are located in extremely marginal areas where I would imagine life would be very hard indeed.
I've also ruled out the possibilty of cilleens, although there is a slight similarity. The cilleens I've seen to date are much simpler, inasmuch as they use one or two marker stones at most. Hope that helps.