County: Donegal Site name: RINNARAW
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Thomas Fanning, Dept. of Archaeology, University College, Galway
Site type: Ringfort - cashel and House - early medieval
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 603751m, N 936783m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.178314, -7.941110
The site consists of a small rock-platform some 25m in diameter, marked on the later editions of the O.S. maps as a cashel and included as such in the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. The project was designed to provide training and experience in archaeological surveying and excavation for the students of the Department of Archaeology, U.C.G., and to determine the nature and date of the site and its features. The work was carried out over a six-week period in July/August 1987 with the aid of a small grant from the Department and in association with the Portnablagh Hotel.
The entire site was contour-surveyed under the direction of Miss Angela Gallagher and, following this, excavation was concentrated in the north-west sector of the site where a number of grass-covered mounds had been observed. Here the foundations of a dry-built structure, probably some form of house site, were uncovered. The internal wall-face of coursed stones along the southern side measures 5.5m. The outer walling is very collapsed and damaged and contains a considerable number of small shattered stones and pebbles. In the southern sector of the interior, the floor area is paved with well-laid slabs or flagstones upon which lie a number of large structural stones. Traces of firing and charcoal were uncovered amongst the fallen wall-stones above the paving. Finds, mainly from the core of the wall and its collapse, included fragments of iron slag, furnace bottoms and a portion of a small lignite bracelet. A further season is planned for 1988.
