11T.J. Westropp speculated, in a 1916 letter, that (absent a stone compartment), "... a plundering army, surprised by the natives as they left the ravaged ‘town,’ had barely time to bury the spoil in loose stones, and got no opportunity to return and remove their spoils. The number and uniform age of the find shows that many were engaged in the collection, and that they got the ornaments from one source, probably a crowd of captives." (Armstrong, E.C.R. "The Great Clare Find of 1854." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth 7.1 (1917): 25-26.)