1988:08 - LISNAGUN, Darrara, Cork

Excavation of Lisnagun Ringfort is Phase 1 of the Lisnagun Development Project. Organised by Clonakilty Macra na Feirme, the aim of the project is the reconstruction of Lisgun for tourism, leisure and education purposes. The excavation of the site was financed by FÁS, An Taisce/Bórd Gáis, the European Year of the Environment and the Bank of Ireland. Excavation took place over a twelve month period from August 1987 to August 1988.

Lisnagun is a univallate ringfort with an overall diameter of c.50m and an internal diameter of c.35m. The site is situated on the 200ft. contour on the brow of a low gradient hillside facing east south east.

The enclosing elements of the ringfort consisted of a dump-constructed bank which survives to a height of 1.5m in places and may originally have been c. 1m higher, surrounded by a flat bottomed, V shaped ditch, originally as much as 4m wide and up to 2m deep. A low counterscarp bank marks the outer circumference of the ditch, though this has either been levelled or incorporated into modern field fences for over half its length.

Access to the site was via a causeway that spanned the ditch in the south east. The causeway was not a construction but a relief feature, created by leaving this part of the ditch unexcavated during construction of the ringfort. The causeway and entrance area were metalled with a compact gravel surface and the bank, both at the point where it was breached and for some distance at either side of the entrance, was retained by a low, drystone wall.

A second entrance gave access to the ringfort from the west. This also was a causeway (dump constructed this time, of layers of earth, gravel and stone), but was not constructed until modern, or early times. Spade-dug furrows in the interior, containing a miscellany of pottery sherds and clay-pipe fragments of 17th-19th century date, may account for this secondary causeway, which could have served to ferry produce and manure to and from the site.

Structures in the interior consisted of a central round house and a range of small outhouses. Evidence for the round house consisted of a shallow penannular gulley, c.6m in diameter. No hearth was identified within this feature, though hearth debris was plentiful. The out-houses were represented by stakehole scatters, short linear foundation trenches and some post holes. Up to half a dozen of these small rectilinear structures were once ranged against the inner bank face on either side of the primary entrance. Ground plans ranged from 5m square to 6m square.

Flooding of the area where these buildings were erected may have rendered them ineffective and furthermore would have made the entrance area a morass after prolonged or heavy rain. Alleviation of this problem was sought by the occupants when they reduced in height by 0.2m the area where the outhouses had stood to facilitate drainage through the entrance and subsequently paved it with a dense, compact, gravel layer.

Three souterrains were constructed at Lisnagun, of the barrel vaulted and creepway type which is almost peculiar to the south west of Ireland, and is particularly numerous in Cork County. These souterrains are earth cut and consist of narrow tunnels c.0.5m in diameter connecting low chambers c. 1.5m wide and seldom over 1m high. The souterrains feature drystone airvents built in back filled shafts, the shafts having been used to bring earth to the surface during the construction of the souterrain itself. Of the three souterrains at Lisnagun, two had collapsed and been back filled and the third survived almost entirely intact. Of the collapsed examples, there is some evidence that one, which was accessible from within the area of the round house trench, was in use and undergoing collapse and continual back filling during the occupation of the house. All three souterrains were contained within the ringfort.

Finds from the site were few, and relatively uninformative. Several pounds of iron slag were recovered, though no smelting area was identified. Several iron objects were found; knife, nail and wire fragments. Although no complete quernstone was found, several fragments were present, apparently unused, manufactured from the local shale. A single blue glass bead was discovered in collapsed souterrain material.

Given the paucity of finds, a precise date for Lisnagun is impossible to establish. The available dating evidence for souterrains suggests late first and early second millennium dates for their construction and use. Round houses, however, are more likely to occur in earlier phases of ringfort occupation, and may have disappeared from the Irish architectural idiom entirely by the end of the 10th century. Blue glass beads occur on sites throughout the period.

Finally, attention must be drawn to the fact that cultivation of the site must have destroyed a great deal of the archaeological stratigraphy and that consequently the excavation results only incompletely represent its occupation and development.