The shape of the monuments known as the Clóenfherta, the ‘Sloping Trenches’, gave rise to a number of early tales. They were regarded as the remnants of the royal residence which collapsed when the king of Tara, Lugaid mac Con gave a false judgement. A second explanation for the shape of the monument is that it was the burial place of thirty princesses from Leinster slain by the king of Tara in revenge for the actions of the king of Leinster. These two monuments are ring-barrows that have been built on the edge of the steeply sloping Western flank of the hill. In spite of the difficulty of digging a bank and ditch on so steep a gradient, both form complete circles and this supports the view that it was important to complete the circuit to comply with ritual convention. At over 80m in diameter, the northern site is by far the largest barrow at Tara. A hole was dug into the central mound, possibly by treasure hunters. The keen observer can make out the remains of a smaller barrow incorporated into the bank at the north side of the site. The southern of the Clóenfherta is about 48m in diameter. There is a small mound on top of the main mound. There are three further mounds tucked in between the northern and southern Clóenfherta and these too are probably burial monuments. South of this and along the crest of the ridge the remains of up to eight small, low barrows without banks can be identified. SMR No ME031-033026- ME031-033027- ME031-033028- ME031-033029- ME031-033030- ME031-033031- ME031-033032- ME031-033033- ME031-033034- ME031-033035- ME031-033036- ME031-033037- ME031-033038- ME031-033039- ME031-033040- ME031-033050- ME031-033077-

Metadata	Information
Source	The Discovery Programme
Contacts	Mr Anthony Corns Technology Manager The Discovery Programme 63 Merrion Square Dublin D2 Dublin Ireland +353 1 639 3039 +353 1 639 3710 anthony@discoveryprogramme.ie
Copyright Credit Line	Copyright ©The Discovery Programme
Europeana Rights	Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, ShareAlike (BY-NC-SA)
Spatial	Clóenfherta, Tara The Sloping Trenches, Tara Casteltown Tara County Meath Ireland
Protection Type	National Monuments in State Care
Start Date	Uncertain
End Date	Uncertain
Period Name	Uncertain
Materials	Earth
Heritage Asset Type	Barrow - bowl-barrow, Barrow - ring-barrow, mound, Ring-ditch