Sun starting to set as I approached the mound barrow from the south-east.
Image credit: ryaner
Images
Looking north. The trig point is on the mound barrow. Like the other two barrows, this too is a grave, probably from the late bronze age.
Image credit: ryaner
The northern barrow looking west into the setting autumn sun.
Image credit: ryaner
The northern barrow.
Image credit: ryaner
The northern barrow.
Image credit: ryaner
South-east over the bowl of the middle barrow with the Wicklow mountains in the far distance.
Image credit: ryaner
Looking south-west over the bowl of the middle barrow. The cattle and the people are over at the southern mound barrow.
Image credit: ryaner
The largest, northern barrow, looking north. It’s a fine monument and complete, but the gorse is encroaching from the west.
Image credit: ryaner
The bowl shape of the middle barrow looking east-north-east.
Image credit: ryaner
Looking south-east with the Wicklow mountains in the distance, this is a pano of the east to south arc of the largest of the three barrows.
Image credit: ryaner
The ditch is nearly 2 metres deep in this sector – Carbury Castle in the distance.
Image credit: ryaner
Prominent bank and ditch in this shot.
Image credit: ryaner
Looking east over the main barrow.
Image credit: ryaner
Looking north with the bank and ditch visible on the main barrow.
Image credit: ryaner
Looking south across the main barrow towards another small mound with the ubiquitous trig point.
Image credit: ryaner
Image credit: Bawn79
Image credit: Bawn79
This barrow is huge, got to be 30-40m diameter.
Image credit: Bawn79
Image credit: Bawn79
Image credit: Bawn79
Image credit: Bawn79
Image credit: Bawn79
Articles
I’d been to Carbury Hill before and not visited the barrows. The site is really a barrow cemetery – I counted four, but there may be more under the gorse as the hill drops away to the west.
The main barrow is huge and its ditch hasn’t silted up too badly over the years. Indeed, it’s almost 2 metres deep in places. The diameter is about 30 metres and it has two satellite barrows within another 30 metres of it. There’s also another small mound/barrow about 120 metres to the south with the ubiquitous trig point plonked on it.
From the main barrow, there would be views all around had the gorse not taken hold so vigoursly.
Carbury Hill is on the Eiscar Riada and is close to Trinity Well the source of the River Boyne that runs by Bru na Boinne.
This has multiple phases of use. There are the two barrows that are dated to the bronze age, a motte and of course the tower-house which is impressive and worth a look around. This hill looks very dramatic and you get a feeling that with the mupltiple periods of use this is an important hill. I’m looking for more folklore/history about this site.
Carbury can be found by turning off in Enfield on the M4, the road is windy. Head into the village of Carbury and turn right at in the middle of the village. There is a Protestant church you can park beside. There is also the ruins of another church and graveyard on the hill.
The northernmost and largest of the three barrows.
From archaeology.ie:
Class: Barrow – ring-barrow
Townland: CARBURY
Scheduled for inclusion in the next revision of the RMP: Yes
Description: Towards the N end of Carbury Hill (0D 470 feet) and the northernmost of three closely associated sites; another ringbarrow (KD008-005----), c. 180m to the SW, and a possible mound barrow (KD008-003----), c. 360m to the SW, all excavated by Willmot in 1936 under a State financed scheme for the relief of unemployment (1938, 130-42 (Site B)). Only part of the central area and a section of the enclosing element at E were excavated. The grass-covered circular area (int. diam. c. 30m) was found to be defined by an inner, rock-cut fosse (Wth c. 4.5m; D c. 1.1m), and an outer ‘bank’ (Wth c. 4.5m; H c. 0.8m) constructed of broken stone and gravel, with a possible (but unexcavated) entrance gap at the NE. The central area was composed of a layer of decomposed rock (D c. 0.45-0.6m) and contained two postholes of undetermined function and nineteen burials. These included four cremations, two of which were disturbed, and fifteen extended inhumation burials, four of which were children, and some of which contained the remains of more than one individual. The cremations appeared to precede the inhumations and one was accompanied by two iron rings and a pin-shaped fragment of iron. All the inhumations had their heads placed towards the SW, and one was accompanied by an iron shears. Other finds included flint scrapers and knives, a stone disc, a sherd of pottery of undetermined type and a ‘bronze knob’. The two burial rites suggest a long period of use, perhaps spanning the Late Bronze Age/Iron Age period. The monument was subsequently restored to it’s pre-excavated morphoplogy.
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy
Date of upload: 10 June 2011
The middle of the three barrows.
From archaeology.ie:
Class: Barrow – ring-barrow
Townland: CARBURY
Scheduled for inclusion in the next revision of the RMP: Yes
Description: Some 180m NE of the summit of Carbury Hill (OD 470 feet) and the central of three closely associated monuments; a possible mound barrow (KD008-003----) c. 180m to the SW, and a second ringbarrow (KD008-004----) c. 180m to the NE, all excavated by Willmot in 1936 under a State financed scheme for the relief of unemployment (1938, 130-42: Site A). A circular area (ext. diam. c. 26m) was defined by an inner, rock-cut fosse (av. Wth c. 2.4m; D c. 0.45-c.0.9m) and an outer ‘bank’ (Wth av. c. 4.8m; H c. 0.6m) constructed of broken, rubble limestone. Opposing entrance gaps occurred at NW (Wth c. 3.65m) and SE (Wth c. 2.4m) and were matched by corresponding, undug, causeways across the fosse. The circular interior (diam. c. 11.6m) was covered by a layer of broken rock (D c. 0.3m) and contained a centrally placed cremation. A second cremation was found in the fosse at N. Finds included eight worked flints, a spindle whorl, two sherds of red ‘gritless’ pottery, a jet spoon, an iron file and a fragment of fused blue glass. An Iron Age date was suggested for the monument, which was subsequently restored to it’s original morphology.
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy
Date of upload: 10 June 2011
The southernmost barrow on the peak of Carbury Hill with the trig point.
From archaeology.ie:
Class: Barrow – mound barrow
Townland: CARBURY
Scheduled for inclusion in the next revision of the RMP: Yes
Description: On the summit of Carbury Hill (OD 470’) and the southernmost of three closely associated sites; a ringbarrow (KD008-005----) c. 180m to the NE, and another ringbarrow (KD008-004----) a further c. 180m beyond to the NE, all excavated by Willmot in 1936 under a State financed scheme for the relief of unemployment (1938, 130-42. (Site C)). A small, circular, grass-covered mound (diam. 8.2m; H. c. 1m) had a slight depression on it’s upper surface and had been used for bonfires in the past. The mound was composed of rock rubble mixed with earth. A small rectangular hollow (dims. L c. 0.3m; Wth c. 0.2m; D c. 0.25m) in the bedrock beneath the mound contained the cremation of a juvenile. No grave goods were found but its prominent siting might suggest that it was the earliest of the three monuments here and may date to the Late Bronze Age. The monument was subsequently restored to it’s pre-excavation shape.
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy
Date of upload: 10 June 2011
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Trinity Well
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Ticknevin
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Cloncanon
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Grovesend or Mooneysland
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Clonkeen
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Rathangan
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Clonin Hill
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Killickaweeny
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Hill of Allen
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Chair of Kildare
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Clonasillagh
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Pass of Kilbride
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Firmount East
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