They have been ascribed to the Bronze Age to Early Iron Age period, c.2400 BCE - 400 CE and are regarded as the single burials of important persons. While they do occur singly, they are frequently grouped into "cemeteries". They also indicate a shift in burial tradition from cremation to inhumation.
These surveys demonstrate that the barrows of a cemetery group near Doolin in County Clare are in fact astronomically sited in much the same way as the monuments of the Cork-Kerry Stone Circle Complex.
Once again, the builders have chosen sites that are complementary to each other in terms of achieving optimal calendrical coverage.
This evidence, combined with that from the megalithic cemetery of Carrowmore, indicates that the whole concept of prehistoric "cemeteries"
may need to be re-evaluated, at least for those societies that inhabited the Altantic margins of North-West Europe.
