County: Tyrone Site name: CLOGHER DEMENSE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: R. B. Warner, Dept of Antiquities, Ulster Museum
Site type: Hillfort
Period/Dating: Iron Age (800 BC-AD 339)
ITM: E 653740m, N 851301m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.407455, -7.172229
Since the report in ‘Excavations 1972’ a popular summary of the excavation and its context has appeared in ‘Clogher Record’, Vol , 197 1ff.
For the ‘Phases’, see ‘Excavations 1972’.
Hillfort: The ditch was found on the eastern slope of the hill to have been much altered and removed by the construction of an extensive platform for iron smelting.
On the north-east and north the ditch was not found, the conclusion being that it was either further down the slope, or had been destroyed by the droveway or furnace earthworks.
‘Multivallations’: A single trench right through the so-called ‘multivallations’ showed them to represent only the juxtapositioning of several different phases of earthwork, not designed as a single defensive system. From the north to the south the remains were- Ringfort bank (phase II b); Ringfort ditch (phase II b); Counterscarp bank (phase post-Il); ‘Cattle-enclosure’ (?) ditch (phase II or post II (?) ); ditto bank; sunken road (phase II or post II); upcast from this. It may be that the sunken road followed the line of the hillfort ditch, but this is not yet verified.
Furnaces: The iron-working furnaces had been dung into the hillfort ditch, on a platform which had removed the hillfort bank. At least two furnaces were found, and others implied. One was a simple bowl, used several times, the other a stone-built developed-bowl. Radiocarbon dates for these furnaces are awaited, and the only other evidence for their date, other than being later than the Phase la hillfort remains, is an iron annular brooch which might belong chronologically to Phase II.
The Interior: More of the interior of the ringfort was opened, including two short stretches of the Phase lb ditch. These trenches are unfinished, but have so far produced more imported pottery of ‘B’ and ‘E’ types, and of unclear types which may be Roman or sub-Roman. Penannular brooches were found, and what appears to be the corner of a rectangular post-and-slot building, in the slot of which the skull of a pig had been placed under a stone.
Conclusion: It seems likely that the phases outlined in ‘Excavations 1972’ will have to be changed slightly during the next season. The precise dates of the lb ditch, and the two external palisades is still rather unsettled. It does appear that the interior slots and pits will eventually be sorted into phases, using both feature-feature and find-feature coincidence methods.
