Derrycarhoon: A later Bronze Age copper mine in south-west Ireland

REVIEW BY ROB IXER Over the decades, O’Brien has recorded, in intense detail, the earliest prehistoric copper mining in south-west Ireland, namely Beaker People’s Chalcolithic to early Bronze Age exploitation at Ross Island (now known for its massive contribution to Bronze Age metalwork), early to middle Bronze Age mining at Mount Gabriel, and now the late-middle Bronze Age copper mining at Derrycarhoon. Although the zeitgeist of the sites is very different, with Derrycarhoon a faded hidden wooded shade, O’Brien has enthused on all to good effect. After a full account of the area’s 19th- and 20th-century finding, exploration, exploitation, and disturbance, O’Brien describes w