County: Fermanagh Site name: DERRYVULLAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Frederick Carroll
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 626745m, N 840603m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.313473, -7.588972
This site is 190m from the shore of Lower Lough Erne but is 76m from a drain shown on old OS maps which is now covered. The site was discovered in 1993 during a planned search in Fermanagh for burnt mounds by Environment Service:Historic Monuments and Buildings. The site appeared as a mound of circular plan, about 16m across. It was 3.5m high with respect to the land towards the lake.
Partial excavation in the summer of 1994 revealed no finds. There were however some interesting structural details within the mound, which, under a cover of soil, contained burnt, shattered sandstone pieces in a black matrix rich in charcoal. The generality of the burnt deposit was up to 0.4m thick, but just off from the geometrical centre of the mound there was a kidney shaped pit dug into the lacustrine plastic blue-grey clay on which the mound rested. This pit measured, in plan, 2.3m by 1.6m at the top and 1.6m by 0.9m at the bottom, and was up to 0.46m deep below the generality of the base of the mound. The sides of the pit were about 55° from horizontal. The pit was floored with the till which underlay the clay. The pit was entirely filled with burnt mound material which showed light and dark parallel layering above the rim of the pit. The layers curved down into the pit from the edges. The pit had many large unburnt sandstone blocks (not found in the generality of the mound) placed around its rim. Suspended within the burnt mound material in the pit at the centre of the pit, was a large rounded cobble of milky quartz about 0.25m in diameter.
Another feature within the mound was an oblong void in the burnt mound material, positioned 1.9m from the centre of the mound. This void measured 3.6m by 1.3m at its base which was floored with blue-grey clay with a thin scatter of charcoal pieces in some parts. The sides of the void were about 29º from horizontal. At each end of the void a large sandstone boulder protruded from the basal clay up to a few centimetres from the land surface. The surface of the mound over the void showed no dip - it was smoothly convex. No further excavation of the mound is planned.
Editor's note: This was report was originally labelled as "Burnt Mound No.1"
66 Irvinestown Rd., Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh
