County: Cork Site name: LISNAGUN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Jerry O'Sullivan
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 541262m, N 541568m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.623530, -8.848322
Excavation of Lisnagun Ringfort is part of a public archaeology project organised by Clonakilty Macra na Feirme with the support of Teagasc and a number of funding agencies.
Extensive excavation of the ringfort interior and of the earthworks had already been carried out in 1987/88 (see Excavations 1988, 11-12). Excavation resumed for four weeks in July 89 to examine the final areas of the interior and of the earthworks which remained unexcavated.
Three test-pits (4 sq. m) and a section trench (12 sq. m) were dug through the ditch fill, and these confirmed the established picture of silt, slump and backfill observed elsewhere in previous test-pits. A large cutting in the interior (32 sq. m) uncovered (a) spreads of occupation material (mottled soil with charcoal and bone fragments), (b) early modern cultivation furrows, (c) two truncated pits, one a post-pit, neither having clear associations, and (d) a heavily corroded fragment of an iron tanged knife of Early Christian type.
Six test-pits (2 sq. m) were dug at random intervals outside the ringfort, within a 50m radius of the outer circumference of the fort. In three of these occupation surfaces were uncovered, but none featured datable features or finds.
Excavation at Lisnagun in 1989 was conducted with the help of volunteers and funds from the Foundation for Field Research, California, USA.
Dunboy, Hollymount, Lee Road, Cork
