County: Tyrone Site name: LISLEAR, Baronscourt
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: D.D.A. Simpson, Dept. of Archaeology, Queen's University, Belfast
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 636343m, N 883694m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.700039, -7.436168
A three-week season of excavations took place on this site in September 1987. The aim of the work was to try and establish a relationship between the rath and the crannog on Island MacHugh which was excavated in 1985 and 1986.
The rath is a roughly pear-shaped enclosure some 63m in diameter, situated on a low rise at the northern end of Lough Catherine and dominating the lough from this position. Excavations consisted of two cuttings through the bank and ditch and four further cuttings of limited size in the interior of the enclosure where work was confined by the presence of a conifer plantation. The cuttings through the earthwork itself revealed that the bank was composed very largely of rubble clearly faced with large stones on its inner side but robbed out on the outer face. The ditch itself was V-shaped in section and some 2.5m in depth and 5m in width. There was evidence from the section for at least one phase of rebutting. The interior had been largely destroyed by early cultivation and no structural features were recovered. The only find was a single fragment of a partially worked lignite bracelet.
