1972:066 - DUNBELL, Kilkenny

Excavation was undertaken for three weeks in July 1972 to investigate Dunbell 6, a destroyed ringfort, prior to its obliteration in the course of mining. Dunbell 6 is one of a group of nine ringforts, only four of which remain undestroyed. The others were dug at different times in the last century; the finds from these sporadic diggings are now in the National Museum of Ireland and range in date from the Iron Age through to Medieval times.

One trench 4m wide was cut through the site. The ringfort was found to be 56m in diameter, and surrounded by a v-shaped ditch 2m deep. A bank was not traceable either on the ground or in any of the sections opened. The remains of at least one circular house was evidenced by the presence of 5 postholes. This may have superimposed an earlier structure represented by 4 possibly destroyed postholes also forming an arc. These were shallow and had a soft sterile fill, and could just as well be natural hollows in the boulder clay were it not for the neat arc which they formed.

One pit enclosed in the first series of postholes may have been a cooking pit. Associated with it was a great deal of charcoal and burnt bone. There were scanty remains of habitation debris in almost every area and some pits contained charcoal, bone and burnt stone. The ditch portions which were excavated were filled with loose stones, probably in the 19th century after the silt had been dug out in search of finds.

Finds include fragments of lignite bracelets, 2 amber beads—one a circular perforated example and one a dumbell-shaped toggle bead—a crescentic object of tusk with tooth-like incisions on the convex edge, and 5 sherds of green-glazed grey, gritty ware. A very fine barbed and tanged limestone arrowhead was found in the topsoil. It is hoped to record other portions of the ditch while mining operations are taking place, at some time in the near future.