placenamesBekan
Béacán
Archaeological field records reveal burnt-stone deposits at Greenwood and a levelled enclosure at Larganboy East.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Béacán · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Bekan · English · main form
Place & story
Burnt stone beside Bekan Lough
At Greenwood, a low peninsula projects into the northeastern end of Bekan Lough. Ploughing exposed a spread of shattered stone and charcoal-rich soil extending for about twenty metres. The National Monuments Service records several related burnt-stone deposits nearby. One low mound at the foot of a slope retained patches of black, stony soil and traces of cultivation ridges around it. These observations establish a cluster of archaeological remains by the water; the records do not identify a particular ceremony or provide an excavated date. [2] [3]
An enclosure surviving as a cropmark
At Larganboy East, another archaeological site was largely levelled before its inspection in 1998. Stunted grass outlined a roughly circular enclosure about forty metres across on a natural rise. Earlier Ordnance Survey mapping had shown an oval feature, with a curving field boundary that may have marked a surrounding ditch. The National Monuments Service considers it most likely to have been a rath, retaining that qualification rather than identifying a named owner or a precisely dated settlement. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bekan. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Greenwood burnt mound, MA092-114---- · Jane O’Shaughnessy, Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service; 25 May 2022
- Greenwood burnt mound, MA092-116---- · Jane O’Shaughnessy, Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service; 25 May 2022
- Larganboy East possible rath, MA092-036---- · Jane O’Shaughnessy, Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service; 24 February 2022
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.