Excavation at 'Dathi's Mound', Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon

Abstract

The partial excavation of the embanked mound and standing stone known as 'Dathi's Mound' at the royal site of Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon, confirmed that the mound had been cut from a natural gravel ridge. It also revealed the existence of a substantial ditch within the encircling bank thus indicating affinities with the ring-barrow class. No burial was found but radiocarbon determinations date the construction of the monument not, as traditionally thought, to the fifth century AD but to the late first millennium BC or the early first millennium AD. Published in the Journal of Irish Archaeology 4 (1987-88), 23-36.