1971:0032 - CLOGHER DEMESNE, Tyrone

The second season at Clogher was mostly confined to continuing the areas opened in 1969, and it is not yet possible to give more than a simple summary of the results.

The ‘contour’ bank of the Hillfort was constructed of the simple upcast from an external flat-bottomed ditch. A spiral bronze finger or toe ring found at the bottom of this ditch would serve to place its construction within the Earlier Iron Age. It appears however that the ditch follows the line of an earlier shallower ditch which may, to judge from occupation features sealed by the Iron Age bank, be of Neolithic date. An internal ditch, with a slotted bottom, would appear to be a later refortification, and is not found everywhere within the bank.

The main cutting through the defences of the Inner ‘Citadel’—a large Ringfort—and into its interior revealed a multiplicity of phases and features. Internal occupation ran from coarse native pottery, of ‘Iron Age’ date, through imported Roman(?) pottery, ending with imported pottery of ‘E’ ware and allied continental types. Structures consisted mainly of large stone filled post pits, which did not have any obvious pattern in the area opened. The interior was fist bounded by a palisade trench, contemporary with the coarse and Roman pots, whose diameter is not less than 30m. Outside this was a very large ditch which has not yet been bottomed.

The upper part of this ditch was filled by several thick sheets of clay which extended outside the ditch and built up into a low bank. Between them were very bony occupation layers, one of which produced a post-Roman imported sherd and a Kilbride-Jones D type penannular brooch.

The final feature was a large dump bank on these earlier layers and apparently everywhere just external to the earlier ditch. This was dug from a very deep, ‘V’ sectioned outer ditch, which gave the Ringfort its present form. It was sealed by imported pottery of the ‘E’ ware type.