County: Tipperary Site name: LURGOE (Derrynaflan)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Raghnall O Floinn, National Museum of Ireland
Site type: Ecclesiastical enclosure
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 610748m, N 649045m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.592574, -7.841368
Two areas were excavated:
1. An area 20m x 10m lying south of where the hoard was found. The earliest feature was a straight U-sectioned ditch containing animal bone and many sherds of imported bii ware. Later activity was represented by a series of spade furrows enclosed by a low field bank with external ditch and a large refuse(?) pit. Outside the embanked area to the south spreads of charcoal and ash flecked soil indicated the presence of structures in the immediate vicinity. Finds included a series of bronze stick pins, bone comb fragments and iron objects dating from the 11th - 13th century. Stone roof slates from the medieval chancel were also found. There was no evidence for industrial activity.
2. A ring-barrow situated 10m north of the medieval cemetery on the eastern edge of the site. Situated on sloping ground it was heavily disturbed by later activity. Spade cultivation had scattered charcoal and burnt bone, especially downslope. The barrow remains as a shallow flat-bottomed ditch 1m in width enclosing an area 6m in diameter. There were no traces of a mound or of a bank. Two pits containing small quantities of charcoal, cremated bone and unburnt animal bone - one inside and one outside the ditch - may represent undisturbed burials.
Other pits outside the line of the ditch were of medieval date, one consisting of a large sump filled with a loose fill of angular fist-sized stones, animal bone and a polished bone gaming piece.
A piece of exotic green porphyry occurred as a surface find.
