County: Tyrone Site name: DUN RUADH, Crouck
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: D.D.A. Simpson, Dept. of Archaeology, Queen's University, Belfast
Site type: Cairn - unclassified and Henge
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 662338m, N 884494m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.704677, -7.032776
The excavation, of one week's duration, was carried out in September 1987. The aim was to recover material for radiocarbon dating and environmental information from the bank and ditch of the henge. It was funded by the Dept. of Archaeology, QUB.
Work here was confined to a single cutting across the bank and ditch on the south-west side of the earthwork enclosing the later Bronze Age cairn and stone circle. The ditch was V-shaped with a narrow flat bottom, and filled very largely with grey/white naturally-accumulating sand weathering from the faces of the cut. The lower portion was waterlogged. Charcoal was obtained from the primary silt, but there were no small finds. The bank material was largely derived from the digging of the ditch and had traces of a stone revetment on its outer face. Dug through the, bank was a pit containing a stone cist within which were cremated human remains of at least two individuals and a large quantity of carbonised wood. The charcoals from the site have been submitted to the QUB radiocarbon laboratory for dating.
