Archaeological Sites on Athenry Golf Course
Athenry Golf Club can boast of two important archaeological sites, which are preserved as features on the course and as national monuments in their own right.
The first site is located directly in front of the green of the first hole. It is a fine example of a ring barrow or burial site consisting of a circular ditch with external bank. Overall it is about 8 meters in diameter. The centre has been dug into and damaged. Such ring-barrows can be dated to the early Iron Age and when the Celts arrived in Ireland during the last centuries B.C. The burials are not normally located in the central area but in the surrounding ditch and the cremated remains are usually accompanied by grave-goods such as decorated glass beads, bone pins and bronze broaches. Professor Etienne Rynne of Athenry has excavated a number of similar barrows which can be seen in the Barony of Dunkellin and two examples at Oranbeg near Derrydonnell and at Grannagh near Ardrahan,. Although damaged this ring- barrow on the Athenry Golf course is an important monument and still undoubtedly retains its burial evidence. It forms a unique man made hazard on the course which the Club are pledged to preserve.
The second archaeological site on the golf course is also a prehistoric barrow or burial mound, but it is not as prominent a feature on the ground. It is located in the rough on top of the low ridge, which juts out to form dog leg of the 13th hole (originally the 4th hole). The circular mound is about 10 metres in diameter and 1 meter in height and is surrounded by a very shallow ditch cut across the scarp of the ridge.
The earthen mound contains at least one large stone, set on edge, which may be part of a box-like grave or cist. This barrow, in all probability, belongs to the earlier Bronze Age, about 1800 to 1200 B.C. when burials, inhumed or cremated, were frequently placed in stone-built cists and accompanied by pottery vessels and other objects. Unlike most archaeological monuments, these two burial sites were not marked on the Ordnance survey maps. They have, however, been surveyed by the National Parks and Monuments Branch of the Office OF public Works, and scheduled, by them, for preservation as important archaeological sites.
Thomas Fanning, member, Department of Archaeology, U.C.G.