County: Limerick Site name: CROOM EAST
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: . E. Shee, Department of Archaeology, University Colleg, Cork
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 550461m, N 659043m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.680277, -8.732615
This site was one of two which were bulldozed in 1972/3 but whose development was delayed pending excavation.
The Site
The ring fort was defended by a single bank with external ditch. Along the southern side it was truncated by the Croom-Rathkeale Road, while the western side had been taken into the garden of the next door house.
The recent bulldozing had levelled the site completely but what proved to be the line of the ditch was identifiable on the ground by a luxuriant growth of thistles. The diameter of the fort mid-bank to mid-bank was approximately 20m.
The Excavation
1m wide trenches were cut through the defences on the south-east and north-east. Elsewhere, the interference detailed above did not allow potentially useful cuts of the defences to be made.
Most of the central area of the fort was excavated, totaling 80 sq.m.
The Defences
The defences originally consisted of a bank and external ditch, but all except the lowest 20-25m of the bank had been levelled into the ditches and across the interior of the fort. In the ditches this recent fill was much more loosely packed than the early fill and it contained pieces of wood and tree roots. On the north-east trench a number of slabs lay on what was the pre-bulldozed surface of the ditch.
The ditch profiles were approximately U-shaped and the bottom of the ditch was about 1.60m below the original ground level.
In the south-east trench a secondary ditch or long pit had been cut parallel with the defences at the lip of the ditch and bank. This was filled with loose dark earth, stones and animal bone. At this point the ditch had a marked shoulder where it deepened sharply about half-way down.
The Central Area
The stratigraphy of the central area had been seriously interfered with by the recent bulldozing, to a depth of 30-40cm. The top layer consisted of l0-15m of humus and yellow clay which had apparently been spread over the site during the construction of the next-door house in 1973. Below this was 20-30cm of dark homogenous material, containing animal bones, but clearly disturbed.
Cut into the old ground surface a number of pits and postholes of varying sizes and depths were discovered; their upper parts had been cut off by the bulldozing. The postholes do not form any clear plan except in the east where a shallow trench about 5m long ran parallel with a line of 5 shallow pits/postholes. On the south west there were a number of irregularly shaped pits up to 45 cm deep. Near the centre of the site was a symmetrical pair of postholes each with a deep posthole cut into the side of a shallower pit.
The Finds
Besides a large quantity of animal bones from the ditches and the central area the only finds were a bronze penannular ring, an iron loop or ring and an iron knife with traces of a bone handle riveted to it. There was also a lump of iron slag.
(CROOM WEST RING FORT
Several surface collections on the adjacent fort to the west yielding animal bones and a whetstone of red sandstone.)
